92 



MALACOLOGY. 



by rendering the distance between them and their 

 source of food too great to be reached by the limited 

 extent of their organs, are thus starved to death, 

 these shells, which were when living vertically placed, 

 assume gradually an inclined position by the super- 

 incumbent weight and the undulating action of the 

 water, are filled with sand or any other matter 

 in which they lived, forming those vast beds of 

 fossil shells which are everywhere existing in the 

 earth's formation, unbroken and even preserving all 

 their delicate characters. Other molluscs, whose 

 motions while living are unconfined by any thing but 

 local convenience or other circumstances inducing 

 them to remain within a limited range of locomotion, 

 are not ever buried in the sands permanently ; and 

 their shells after the animal's death, becoming the 

 sport of the winds and waves, are indiscriminately 

 rolled from one spot to another, or broken against 

 the rocks and corals of a submarine world, until they 

 are reduced to molecular portions, in their turn assist- 

 ing in forming new strata, in which the law of spe- 

 cific gravity is manifest, the heavier portions forming 

 the most dense beds, the lighter being uppermost ; 

 thus keeping up that compensating plan of infinite 

 wisdom, which has established that all things created 

 shall for a time perform their several functions of 

 creation, then pass away, yet continue under other 

 forms, to be necessary to succeeding generations, each 

 of their kind whether animal, mineral, or vegetable. 



We shall not, perhaps, be deemed visionary in say- 

 ing, that it is by these beds, these deposits of cal- 

 careous matter, which in a long series of years, and 

 the continual pressure of others above them, combined 

 with the tendency of inorganic molicules, to solidify, 

 and even crystallise, that many rocks have been formed, 

 which now present no trace of their ancient organic 

 structure. On this subject we promise our readers 

 some interesting information, under the article POLY- 

 PUS, in which the coral formations will be described, 

 and found strictly illustrative of our present geological 

 view of the earth's formation, neither must the scep- 

 tical advance an opinion of the impossibility of such 

 being the fact by the limited number of molluscs we 

 know of, since they form but a trifling portion of 

 those we know nothing about, or have only seen a 

 few of, amidst the countless myriads with which 

 the depths of ocean teem, whose spoils of for- 

 mer races have accumulated slowly but surely 

 during the lapse of ages, beyond the power of man to 

 calculate with certainty. Molluscs exist, and ever 

 have existed, in all portions of the globe, no part of it 

 being without its tenants, whether on the surface or 

 beneath its elements, 



Where the pool 



Stands mantled o'er with green, invisible 

 Amid the floating verdure, millions stray ; 

 Each liquid too, whether it pierces, soothes, 

 Inflames, refreshes, or exalts the taste, 

 With various forms abounds. Nor is the stream 

 Of puresft crystal, nor the lucid air, 

 (Though one transparent vacancy it seems,) 

 Void of its unseen people. 

 Let no presuming impious railer tax, 

 Creative wisdom, as if aught was formed 

 In vain, or not for admirable ends. 

 Shall little haughty Ignorance pronounce 

 His works unwise, of which the smallest part 

 Exceeds the narrow vision of her mind. 



Their numbers consequently depending upon the 

 range of locality ; and though we should feel dis- 

 posed to assert that species of the same family are 

 probably to be found in almost every climate such 



as the Sepia and its congeners they certainly are far 

 more numerous in some countries than others, being 

 naturally influenced like every other animal by those 

 circumstances most conducive to its development, 

 growth, arid life. 



As our knowledge of this interesting class of 

 animal existence becomes daily more and more unfold- 

 ed, we have in the same proportion increased cause to 

 adore the inscrutable wisdom which has dictated their 

 formation, and given to them important functions, all 

 tending ultimately to benefit mankind, and acting un- 

 seen in their operations, beyond such as must beascribed 

 to them in common with creatures more elevated, but 

 not more useful, in the scale of nature. We have slightly 

 digressed from the plan we had proposed ; but the 

 animal and its testaceous covering being so intimately 

 united in our point of view, we could not pass over . 

 the one without mentioning the other. We said that 

 the true principles of malacology might be best founded 

 upon a certain organic structure, but in this as in 

 every other part of systematic arrangement, the task 

 must rest with experienced zoologists, and very pro- 

 perly so, as systems are intended for masters, more 

 than disciples, as a whole, though indispensable to 

 the latter as an authority and instruction, in matters 

 where knowledge can only be derived from such 

 sources, generally unaccompanied by an opportunity 

 of judging their correctness beyond a very confined 

 portion of the subject. There is another well defined 

 character upon which the French naturalists particu- 

 larly have founded their system \>f malacology, it is 

 more easily examined, and presents the most satisfac- 

 tory conclusions with regard to the present possibility 

 of classing the naked with the clothed mollusca, under 

 one general distribution of classification. It is the 

 Respiratory Organs of molluscs ; from which the de- 

 nominations of the different orders derive their names, 

 in the system we have adopted, as the most natural 

 and most complete yet formed, harmonizing too with 

 the characteristic structure of the shell wherever it 

 exists. As it is obviously necessary that a work like the 

 British Cyclopaedia must be based upon eome gene- 

 rally acknowledged system, as applicable to the dif- 

 ferent branches of natural history it explains, we have 

 determined upon that which is universally now fol- 

 lowed by writers on malacology, having found their 

 judgment fully corroborated by our own experience ; 

 and though as we have and shall continue to point 

 out anything not strictly correct, or any new ideas 

 that subsequent information and daily discoveries 

 enable us to mention ; it is taken altogether, as perfect 

 in its principles, and as good in its classification as it 

 can well be, for no system can be quite so, or indeed 

 ever complete ; the very nature of our inquiries lead- 

 ing to new results, and carrying on those of other 

 persons to a far greater extent than they had observed 

 or had mentioned. The late eminent Dr. Woollaston 

 once told the author of this article that steam, and 

 the application of its powers to mechanical purposes, 

 was but in its infancy, and mighty as its operations 

 now are, they give promise of becoming yet more 

 prodigious. So with regard to the application of 

 science to the development of nature's powers, we 

 are but in our infancy ; and all that the united wisdom 

 of man has yet effected, does not amount to a calcu- 

 lable portion of the infinite wisdom displayed in the 

 smallest mechanism of nature, we can only go on, 

 sifting, sorting, and selecting, by actual investiga- 

 tion, and close analogous reasoning, approximating 



