PHOLAS. 367 



A number of loose stones are often left uncovered by the 

 reflux of the tide, and few, in looking on them, would con- 

 jecture that some probably contain inhabitants of curious 

 form and instincts. In each of them a Pholas often ex- 

 cavates his little cell ; which he does by the help of a soft 

 and pKant proboscis, having previously softened them, as 

 the famous Carthaginian general, Hannibal, is fabled to have 

 done, not indeed with vinegar, but by means of a peculiar 

 secretion with which the creature is abundantly provided. 

 His dwelling is generally oblique to the horizon, resembling 

 a truncated cone, and terminated with a roundish cavity, 

 which receives the body ; whilst the furthest end is filled up 

 with a proboscis, or pipe, of a fleshy substance and conical 

 form, truncated at the end. This pipe the animal usually 

 protrudes to the surface of the stone, for the evident purpose 

 of drawing in the sea-water, on which he subsists, and of 

 again rejecting it for a fresh supply. 



Thus immerged, the Pkolas subsists in indolence and 

 plenty, and continues in seclusion, apparently without any 

 desire to revisit the light of day. Yet the little prisoner is 

 not so solitary as might at first appear, for many of the 

 brotherhood congregate in the same rock; and their 

 galleries, like those of miners, frecjuently open one into 



