WONDERS OF THE SHORE 1359 



which you see thrown about on the beach, and which 

 grows naturally in two or three fathoms of water. 

 Stay: here is one which is "more than itself." On 

 its back is mounted a cluster of barnacles (Balanus 

 Porcatus), of the same family as those which stud 

 the tide-rocks in millions, scratching the legs of 

 hapless bathers. Look at the mouth of the shell; a 

 long gray worm protrudes from it, which is not the 

 rightful inhabitant. He is dead long since, and his 

 place has been occupied by one Sipunculus Bern- 

 hardi, a wight of low degree who connects "radiate" 

 with annulate forms in plain English, sea-cucumbers 

 with sea-worms. But however low in the scale of 

 comparative anatomy, he has wit enough to take care 

 of himself; mean, ugly, little worm as he seems. 

 For, finding the mouth of the Turritella too big for 

 him, he has plastered it up with sand and mud 

 (Heaven alone knows how), just as a wry-neck 

 plasters up a hole in an apple tree when she intends 

 to build therein, and has left only a round hole, out 

 of which he can poke his proboscis. A curious thing 

 is this proboscis, when seen through the magnifier. 

 You perceive a ring of tentacles round the mouth, 

 for picking up I know not what; and you will per- 

 ceive, too, if you watch it, that when he draws it in, 

 he turns mouth, tentacles, and all inward, and so 

 down into his stomach, just as if you were to turn 

 the finger of a glove inward from the tip till it 

 passed into the hand ; and so performs, every time he 

 eats, the clown's as yet ideal feat of jumping down 

 his own throat. 



So much have we seen on one little shell. But 



