340 TURBINID^E. 



of gait. The fry of the present species is globular and 

 distinctly umbilicate ; it might almost be mistaken for 

 that of a Lacuna. The shell and animal are equally 

 pretty. Now and then the former is pearl-white ; and 

 both may have sat for their portraits when Tennyson 

 sketched the 23rd Canto of ' Maud/ 



" Stanza 1. 



" See what a lovely shell, 

 Small and pure as a pearl, 

 Lying close to my foot, 

 Frail, but a work divine, 

 Made so fairily well 

 With delicate spire and whorl, 

 How exquisitely minute, 

 A miracle of design ! 



2. 



" What is it ? a learned man 

 Could give it a clumsy name. 

 Let him name it who can, 

 The beauty would be the same. 



3. 



" The tiny cell is forlorn, 

 Void of the little living will 

 That made it stir on the shore. 

 Did he stand at the diamond door 

 Of his house in a rainbow frill ? 

 Did he push, when he was uncurled, 

 A golden foot or a fairy horn 

 Through his dim water- world ? 



4. 



" Slight, to be crush' d with a tap 

 Of my finger-nail on the sand, 

 Small, but a work divine, 

 Frail, but of force to withstand, 

 Year upon year, the shock 

 Of cataract seas that snap 

 The three-decker's oaken spine 

 Athwart the ledges of rock, 

 Here on the Breton strand ! " 



