The conch enters the shell of a mussel without waiting for any invitation, tears out the flesh of its victim and 

 devours it with relish. A host of enemies feed upon the mussel and would seem to foreshadow its extinction 

 were it not for its wonderful powers of reproduction and the inexhaustibility of its food supply 



The starfish is the archenemy. Enormous numbers — which no one has yet attempted to estimate — of the 

 mussels are victims of voracious armies of starfish, that march back and forth across the mussel beds and up and 

 down wharf piles where these moUusks grow 



363 



