xvi INTRODUCTION. 



descry these too, in language "silent, but more 

 eloquent than words," proclaim the astounding 

 majesty and never ceasing beneficence of the Great 

 Creator. 



We are too often apt to look down contemptuously, 

 if not with feelings of disgust, upon some of the 

 objects by which we are surrounded, forgetful of the 

 fact that nothing which the Almighty has seen fit to 

 create can possibly be unworthy of our admiration, 

 and that 



*' Each shell, each crawling insect holds a rank 

 Important in the plan of Him who framed 

 This scale of beings ; holds a rank, which lost 

 Would break the chain and leave behind a gap 

 Which Nature's self would rue." 



It is impossible to acquire an accurate knowledge 

 of any subject unless our investigations are conducted 

 in an orderly manner, and after some settled plan ; 

 naturalists have therefore divided the products of our 

 Earth according to their structure, and arranged them 

 systematically in groups. The Animal Kingdom is 

 divided into Sub-kingdoms, Classes, Orders, Families, 

 Genera, and Species. 



Mollusca. The creatures which form the subject of 

 the following pages belong to a Sub-kingdom, to 

 which the name of Mollusca has been given. The 

 Mollusca,* or Molluscs (as they are usually called), 

 are invertebrate animals, that is, they are unprovided 

 with a vertebral column or back-bone ; their bodies are 

 soft and fleshy, and, except in the case of the Cephalo- 

 pods (of which the cuttle-fish is an example), entirely 

 destitute of a skeleton, bones, or joints of any kind, 



* From mollis (Latin), soft. 



