20 



MANUAL OF THE MOLLUSCA. 



Lastly, the molltisca exhibit the same instinctive care with 

 insects and the higher animals, in placing their eggs in situations 

 where they will be safe from injury, or open to the influences of 

 air and heat, or surrounded by the food which the young will 

 requu-e. The tropical bulimi cement leaves together, to protect 

 and conceal their large, bird-like, eggs ; the slugs bury theu*s in 

 the ground ; the oceanic-snail attaches them to a floating raft ; 



Fig. 9. lanthina icitJi its raft. 



and the argonaut cames them in her frail boat. The horny cap- 

 sules of the whelk are clustered in gTOups, with spaces pervading 

 the interior, for the free passage of sea-water ; and the nidamental 

 ribbon of the doris and eolis is attached to a rock, or some 

 solid surface from which it will not be detached by the waves. 

 The river-mussel and cijclas carry theii- parental care still further, 

 and nurse their young in their own mantle, or in a special mar- 

 supiwn, designed, like that of the opossum, to protect them until 

 they ai-e strong enough to shift for themselves. 



If any one imbued with the spii'it of Paley or Chateaubriand, 

 should study these phenomena, he might discover more than the 

 " barren facts" which alone appear, without significance, to the 

 unspiiitual eye ; he would see at every step fresh proofs of the 

 wisdom and goodness of God, who thus manifests his greatness 

 by displaying the same care for the maintenance of his feeblest 

 creatures, as for the well-being of man, and the stability of the 

 world. 



