THE WONDERS OF THE SHORE. 109 
hands, while Synapta expresses merely its power of 
clinging to the fingers, which it possesses in common 
with many other animals. It is, at least, a beast 
worth talking about; as for finding one, I fear that 
we have no chance of such good fortune. 
Colonel Montagu found them here some forty 
years ago; and after him, Mr. Alder, in 1845, I 
found hundreds of them, but only once, in 1854 
after a heavy south-eastern gale, washed up among 
the great Lutrariz in a cove near Goodrington; but 
all my dredging outside failed to procure a specimen. 
Mr. Alder, however, and Mr. Cocks (who find every- 
thing, and will at last certainly catch Midgard, the 
great sea-serpent, as Thor did, by baiting for him 
with a bull’s head), have dredged them in great 
numbers ; the former, at Helford in Cornwall, the 
latter on the west coast of Scotland. It seems, 
however, to be a southern monster, probably a 
remnant, like the great cockle, of the Mediterraenan 
fauna ; for Mr. MacAndrew finds them plentifully in 
Vigo Bay, and J. Miiller in the Adriatic, off Trieste, 
But what is it like? Conceive a very fat short 
