TELLINA. 381 



shells may often be seen lining the upper tide-mark in 

 large bays, having been torn from their soft beds and 

 cast up by the waves. Helplessly stranded, amid sea- 

 weeds and foam, they lie in the rays of the setting 

 sun, wet and glistening, ruby, gold, amber, and opal. 

 These petty wrecks always accompany a storm ; and 

 afterwards the sea puts on a sorrowful face *, as if half 

 conscious and repenting of the havoc he had lately 

 made. Who has not enjoyed at such a time a ramble 

 on the wide beach, perhaps not unobservant of the 

 various debris with which it is now strewn, albeit in a 

 pensive mood and 



" Framing wild fancies to the ocean's swell " ? 



The Ettrick shepherd may have had in his eye a 

 scene of this kind when he wrote, 



" While fairy shells in myriads lying, 

 The smooth hard sand in lustre dyeing, 

 Encircle with a far-seen chain 

 Of glory the most glorious main." 



The sea in a happier aspect, decorating with shells the 

 tawny brow of his bride, the shore, has been portrayed by 

 a more modern poet in some well-known lines ; and the 

 conchologist ought to be doubly gratified by his favourite 

 theme being so immortalized by the northern muse. 



The T. tenuis of Chemnitz is a different species. Our 

 shell is his T. incarnata, and probably that of Risso ; 

 but the descriptions of the latter are so vague and in- 

 sufficient, that it is almost a waste of labour to attempt 

 any identification of his species. It is the T. planata 

 of Pennant and T. polita of Pulteney (but not either of 

 the species so named by Linne), and the T. exigua of 

 Poli. 



* " Whispering how meek and gentle he can be." 



