302 trochidtE. 



pliance, and having plenty of time at his disposal^ he 

 will frequently be unable to leave harbour for many days 

 together^ or to remain any time out at sea. Hence 

 arise continual disappointments, rarely alleviated by 

 such a discovery as I have just described. In one of 

 these periods of despondence there was a lull between a 

 past and coming storm, when this loveable pearly shell 

 made its appearance and gladdened our longing eyes : 

 we realized the thought in ' Endymion ' — 



" in spite of all, 



Some shape of beauty moves away the pall 

 From our dark spirits." 



We were the first of human race that beheld it; 

 although, for ages uncountable, generation after gener- 

 ation of it must have lived and died, 



" Full many a fathom deep, 

 On thy wild and stormy steep," 



Hialtland ! 



Perhaps with our joy was not unmingled a secret 

 feeling of pride in the discovery, against which, as 

 little short of a sin. Professor Kingsley cautions us in 

 his pleasant little book ' Glaucus.^ Our " pearl of the 

 deep " might have served to bedeck the mermaid in the 

 lay of the ^ Queen^s Wake ' ; Burns would certainly have 

 called it ^^ a bonie gem.^^ The eastern seas do not sur- 

 pass our own in furnishing such a marvel of Nature^s 

 workmanship, although the oriental pearl and the nor- 

 thern shell are alike perfect in opaline lustre and purity. 

 Their production, however, is a plain sphere. Ours is a 

 pyramidal cone, encircled by a winding gallery, and more 

 elegantly sculptured than the finest rood-screen; its 

 base is hollow and exhibits a spiral staircase. The door 

 or operculum is circular and transparent ; it may be 



