NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OP THE BELL ROCK. 6 



is thrust and the contents gradually extracted. Two years 

 ago the Rock was literally covered with patches of immature 

 mussels, but is now completely denuded by these rapacious 

 hordes. Some seasons the mussel spawn is pretty much in 

 evidence here, but they never come to maturity ; the white 

 whelk takes care of that; but apart from that cause, it is 

 doubtful if they could manage to subsist in such a boisterous 

 situation. The workmen, while employed here in the build- 

 ing of the Lighthouse, in order to regale themselves with a 

 fresh diet occasionally, made the experiment of transplanting 

 mussels from the shore, but without success. The white 

 whelk was evidently considered the chief offender, as barrels 

 of them were collected and destroyed without any appreciable 

 diminution of their numbers. The attempt was ultimately 

 abandoned in disgust. 



" All is not gold that glitters," neither does every whelk 

 shell enclose its legitimate owner. Pick up that one which 

 moves with such unusual speed through this shallow pool, and 

 you will find a pair of lobster like claws dangling from its 

 mouth. Gently crack the shell for you will find it next 

 to impossible to extract him alive otherwise and you will 

 see, what one may be pardoned for supposing, a miniature 

 lobster, but which in reality belongs to another distinct 

 species, namely, the hermit crab. Whether he has obtained 

 occupancy by force of arms or merely through decease of 

 the original tenant is a moot point, but the first supposition 

 is highly probable, as he is a most belligerent little customer. 

 An amusing sight may be witnessed by placing several of 

 them, deprived of the shells, in an ordinary soup plate, with 

 a little sea water and some empty shells fewer shells than 

 crabs. The fighting and struggling to secure houses is 

 ludicrous in the extreme. One may be seen almost successful 

 in mooring himself within a shell which, by the way, is 

 effected by means of the shelly plates at the extremity of 

 his soft, twisted tail when another seizes him by the nape 

 of the neck, as it were, and he is dragged reluctantly forth. 

 The evictor still holds him struggling at claw's length, and 



