AUGUST, 1881. 43 



necessarily in the life currents of the ascidian, but fixed 

 in the stiff gelatinous coating. These shells are of the 

 mussel species a class that frequently seeks to hide or 

 cover itself, and some by means of their byssis succeed 

 in surrounding themselves with quite a little heap of 

 miscellaneous articles. Those in the ascidians are 

 beautifully delicate and daintily marked, and many have 

 evidently taken up their abode in the body of the creature 

 from their earliest infancy, all sizes being found in the 

 same animal. 



Here we are upon sandy bottom again, for the sandstars 

 those fragile-limbed starfish without ray-spines or cirri 

 are wriggling in numbers among the contents of the 

 dredge. Then these little shells, so sober-toned on the 

 outside, where a dull cuticle covers them, and so brilliant 

 inside, where the mother-of-pearl gleams on them like 

 silver, are quite numerous whenever we get into the 

 deeper waters. We come to look upon these nuculae as 

 quite elegant, so plump do they feel, and so careful of 

 their internal charms. We have the "pelican's foot" in 

 the loch, too, and in a living state ; so you need not fear 

 to get a specimen by and bye, my young friend. Thus 

 we continue to prosecute our search, and at length among 

 delicate tellinae, and quaint-looking corbulae, and silver 

 bosomed mtculae, dull, hard working borers, like saxicava, 

 that drill their way into odd corners, and blunt-nosed 

 specimens of mya truncata, we find a solitary pes pelecani, 

 or pelican's foot, with the very carnivorous possessor " at 

 home." Of course, we occasionally obtain Cyprcea, the 

 beautiful little cowrie, and here is one with a dark cuticle 

 all over it. Take care, now ! look closer at the line 

 gradually widening down the back, for the little animal 

 is withdrawing the "mantle " that expands and covers it 



