MULTIVALVES. Zt 
remarkably slow; and when buried in the stone, he 
has no discoverable movement, excepting a very 
slight one towards the centre, which is only in pro- 
portion to his size. The dwelling of this solitary 
shell-fish is generally oblique to the horizon, resem- 
bling 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 Pholas subsists in indolence 
and plenty, and having once secured a comfortable 
retreat, he 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 though immured in his cell, and unable to escape 
when fully grown, many of the brotherhood con- 
gregate in the same rock; and their galleries, like 
those of miners, frequently open one into the other. 
Whether these openings are casual, or designed, few 
naturalists will take upon them to decide; but it 
is certain that several of these little anchorites some- 
times reside in the same neighbourhood; and that 
