158 CONCHOLOGIST’S COMPANION. 
against the cold of winter, is also admirably adapted 
for warmth, and for security. But the cerate is not 
of the same substance as the shell; evidently because 
the animal would be then unable to break down the 
enclosing barrier, when the return of spring invites 
him from his winter quarters. In the midst of an 
almost endless variety, a striking regularity is never- 
theless discoverable. However different individuals 
may vary in form and colour, according to the sites 
which they are designed to occupy, in one point they 
almost universally agree. The number of whirls in 
the same species is generally, if not always, the same ; 
and these, with a few exceptions, are uniformly in 
one direction, that is, from right to left, like the 
motion of the globe, when the mouth of the shell is 
turned northward, with the base towards the ground. 
- These admirable receptacles, when deserted by 
their artificers, serve as temporary habitations to 
insects of various kinds. The Caracol Soldato, or 
Soldier-snail of Carthagena, takes up his abode in 
the hollow apartment of a marine Helix. This sin- 
gular creature, which resembles a snail in his general 
construction, while the head and claws differ little 
from those of a crab, is destitute of any kind of 
covering, and from the tenderness and flexibility of 
his body is peculiarly liable to injury. He, accord- 
ingly, no sooner becomes sensible of his helpless 
