266 INTRODUCTION TO CONCHOLOGY. 



safely moored in places upon which they have been hurried, 

 like shipwrecked mariners, by the fury of a tempest. 



I^othing, then, is wanting to this feeble creature : the 

 same Almighty Creator who hurls the tempest, provides for 

 its security amid the fury of the storm. And yet, tliis is 

 but a single member of a numerous family, and the family 

 itseK but a small colony of the myriads of shell-fish that 

 extend from the Line to the Frozen Ocean. 



When reflecting on those tribes which, like insects, un- 

 dergo a series of transformations, we are accustomed to 

 associate in our minds the idea of the greatest locomotive 

 power with the most mature and perfect condition of each. 

 But such is not the case, and Mr. Forbes has recently shown 

 that many kinds of Testacea, and among these especially 

 the Pectens, possess, when young, the means of swimming 

 from one region to another, which are denied them when 

 they attain their full development. 



The curious instincts of these interesting shell-fish most 

 probably suggested the poetic chariots of the sea-gods, who 

 were fabled to ride triumphantly in shells drawn by Tritons. 

 Such was the car of Neptune, as we find in Yirgil, and on 

 a medal of Claudius : 



