52 RAMBLES OF 



colours and ornaments are lavished upon genera and spe- 

 cies which exist only at immense depths in the ocean, or 

 buried in the mud ; nor can-any one form a satisfactory 

 idea of the object the great Author of nature had in view, 

 in thus profusely beautifying creatures occupying so low 

 a place in the scale of creation. 



European naturalists have hitherto fallen into the 

 strangest absurdities concerning the motion of the bi- 

 valved shells, which five minutes' observation of nature 

 would have served them to correct. Thus they describe 

 the upper part of the shell as the lower, and the hind part 

 as the front, and speak of them as moving along on their 

 rounded convex surface, like a boat on its keel ; instead 

 of advancing with the edges or open part of the shell to- 

 wards the earth. All these mistakes have been corrected, 

 and the true mode of progression indicated from actual 

 observation, by our fellow citizen, Isaac Lea, whose re- 

 cently published communications to the American Philo- 

 sophical Society, reflect the highest credit upon their 

 author, who is a naturalist in the best sense of the term. 



As I wandered slowly along the borders of the run, 

 towards a little wood, my attention was caught by a con- 

 siderable collection of shells lying near an old stump. 

 Many of these appeared to have been recently emptied 

 of their contents, and others seemed to have long re- 

 mained exposed to the weather. On most of them, at the 

 thinnest part of the edge, a peculiar kind of fracture was 

 obvious, and this seemed to be the work of an animal. 



