182 CONCHOLOGIST’S COMPANION, 
scarcely discoverable. As soon as they have entered, 
and completed their habitations, their next care is to 
beautify, and render them commodious. This they 
effect, by means of a white glutinous fluid, exuding 
from their bodies, like the viscous juices of the common 
Snail, which hardens into a sort of crust, and forms 
a thin, smooth lining to their respective cells. This 
lining, by filling up the cavities, and smoothing 
every inequality, protects their tender bodies from 
being injured by the roughness of the wood; it also 
enables them to move in various directions without 
inconvenience or danger. 
A social compact apparently subsists between 
these shelly anchorites, as the greatest care is taken 
to avoid injuring each other’s habitations. Each 
case, or shell, is preserved entire; and even where a 
piece of wood has been so completely perforated as 
to resemble a honey-comb, the slightest passage, or 
communication, has never been discovered between 
the different compartments, though the divisions 
have frequently not exceeded the thickness of fine 
writing paper. 
Thus far are we indebted to the observations of 
Sir Everard Home.—And is there nothing humili- 
ating in the conclusions to which these facts lead? 
Would it not appear as if those floating castles, which 
open communications between different countries, 
