294 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



affords numerous examples, such as the various 

 kinds of whelks, limpets, wreath-shells and others. 



All these, and a vast multitude of other animals 

 of the same order, although differing from each 

 other in many minute particulars, possess one 

 peculiarity in common in their organs of loco- 

 motion, which consists of a broad muscular disk 

 on the lower surface of the body. Of this pecu- 

 liarity the common garden snail is a familiar 

 example, its mode of progression being precisely 

 similar to that of the aquatic members of the class 

 to which it belongs. 



The class of which we are now to notice some 

 specimens is, as already stated, extremely numer- 

 ous, and comprehends eight orders or subdivisions, 

 differing from each other in some modification of 

 their organs of breathing. It is not desirable in 

 a work of this kind to enter into a minute descrip- 

 tion of the characteristics of each of these eight 

 orders. Our purpose will be sufficiently accom- 

 plished by a description of some of the more 

 familiar specimens of the class by which these 

 orders are embraced. 



The common whelk (Buccinum undatum) is a 

 well-known example. It is to the empty shell 

 of this mollusc that the poet Wordsworth refers, 

 in his description of the effect produced on the 

 imagination of a child by the murmuring sound 

 heard from the shell when held close to the ear. 



" I have seen 



A curious child applying to his ear 

 The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell, 



