42 CONCHOLOGIST’S COMPANION. 
somewhat of their ancient empire, receded from the 
space they occupied; though the period cannot be 
ascertained, from the total absence of local infor- 
mation. 
They also abound in Scotland, where a gigantic 
species of the same interesting genus is employed in 
the Hebrides for skimming milk. Macpherson informs 
us, that in the days of Fingal, it was also admitted 
into the feast of heroes, as the cup of their festivity, 
by the name of sliga-crechin, or the drinking-shell. 
But the animal inhabitants of the Ostree are 
apparently some of the most insignificant of created 
beings; nay, they appear little more than a gelatin- 
ous substance; and yet these feeble creatures, though 
formerly supposed incapable of voluntary motion, 
and scarcely superior to vegetables, are conscious of 
their existence, and conscious, also, that something 
exists exterior to themselves. They choose, reject, 
and vary their operations with judgment; defend 
themselves by adequate and complicated means; 
repair their losses, and occasionally assume new 
habits. They possess, when young, the faculty of 
swimming rapidly, by means of an undulatory mo- 
tion of the branchiz, but when arrived at full growth 
this faculty or inclination ceases; and while their 
active relatives are darting round them, they remain 
contentedly fixed in their places of abode, surrounded 
