174 CONCHOLOGIST’S COMPANION. 
Ossian’s ‘‘ lonely dwellers of the rock,” solitary in 
the midst of numbers, and apparently incapable of 
sharing in the general joy.—But softly: has not 
Providence assigned to every class of being, its pecu- 
liar sources of enjoyment? and is not the solitary 
Limpet exempt from dangers which continually sur- 
round the finny natives of the deep? Gradually, the 
beams of the sun illumined the summit of the rocks. 
One of the shells began to open. A kind of leg, or 
foot, was carefully projected from beneath the shell, 
which gently erected itself on one edge, as if to 
diminish friction, and by a sudden spring, the creature 
actually advanced to a considerable distance. 
“This,” said a fisherman, to whom I pointed 
out the movement of the Limpet, ‘‘ is their common 
method of proceeding. The form of the leg which 
you observed may be altered at pleasure: it answers 
the purpose of a foot, or hand, by the help of which 
they are able to sink into the mud, rise from it again, 
and even spring, as you have just observed, from 
the rocks, to which they generally adhere so closely 
that it is impossible to remove them without consi- 
derable force; unless, (for it seems that their sense 
of hearing is very exquisite,) you come upon them 
unexpectedly.” 
We boast of our inventions in the arts and sciences, 
forgetting, that we are frequently anticipated, by even 
