288 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



at the same time, employed in adding to the 

 thickness of the shell, depositing the beautifully- 

 smooth and pearly substance so remarkable in 

 their inner surfaces. Thus, the fine mother-of- 

 pearl on the inside of the oyster-shell, and the 

 various patterns in yellow, blue, pink, brown, 

 crimson, and other colours which ornament the 

 exterior of other shells, is all the work of this 

 simple, and efficient piece of mechanism. What 

 the peculiarity of structure in the glands of 

 this marvellous organ may be by which it elabo- 

 rates the shelly matter, and deposits frequently in 

 a regular pattern, the colours adorning it, and 

 from what materials the lime and the colours are 

 extracted, are all questions, which, while they 

 demand for their solution the highest exercise of 

 the naturalist's skill, display, at the same time, an 

 instance of creative design which it is impossible 

 too greatly to admire. The body of the cockle, 

 besides containing the viscera, is furnished with a 

 yellow-tipped instrument, which is by naturalists 

 called its foot, being the means by which it 

 moves, burying itself with ease in the sand. 



The Scallop, the empty shells of which are 

 frequently found scattered along the margin of 

 the sea, is not found, like the cockle, buried in 

 the sand, but is taken, like the oyster, in deep 

 water, by means of a dredge. There are more 

 than a dozen varieties peculiar to the British 

 shores. This mollusc is well known to every 

 visitor of the sea-shore, and its beautifully- 

 marked, and regularly-fluted shell, is generally a 



