262 INTRODUCTION TO CONCHOLOGY. 



over which a web-like tapestry is suspended. And thus, 

 while the cordage already mentioned is employed to bind 

 the materials together, and every rough point is rendered 

 exquisitely smooth, the whole is covered with web-hke 

 hangings, after the maimer in which the tapestry bee adorns 

 her cell, and renders it both warm and comfortable. The 

 architect is thus protected from injury, and the fringes 

 with which he is decorated cannot become entangled with 

 the projecting edges of the coral. All within this curious 

 dwelling is in consequence smooth and highly wrought : 

 though rugged without, it is internally beautiful, and con- 

 tains a joyous inhabitant. Concerning his domestic occu- 

 pations within the dwelling which he has so admirably 

 made, we cannot write ; they are doubtless such as befit his 

 watery location, and may partly consist in repairing his 

 tapestry hangings when required, or in strengthening the 

 cords that bind his domicile together. An angler, too, is 

 he; his fringed appendages serve, it is conjectured, for 

 fishing-rods, to catch his prey. Those who look down 

 through clear calm waters that often cover his marine abode 

 may chance to see the fairy-looking Lima, swimming about 

 with great rapidity. Like his neighbour the Scallop, he 

 repeatedly opens his valves, and then, suddenly closing 



