BABBLING BEACHES 107 



of ten inches, opaque and tough, which is broken off, 

 seared over the fire, and eaten with apparent relish. 

 It is remarkable that in localities in which this mollusc 

 is found a seaweed occurs similar in shape and size, the 

 chief difference in appearance being in the length of the 

 stalk, which in the plant is thin and membranous. 



The Phorous, or carrier, otherwise the mineralogist, 

 is remarkable for its extraordinary habit of cementing 

 to its exterior stones of irregular size, and in some cases 

 dead shells of other species, an office performed by the 

 use of an exceptionally long tongue. Its movements 

 are said to be very clumsy and erratic, as if its self- 

 imposed burden was too cumbersome for its strength. 

 Personal observation fails to verify its staggering gait, 

 for dead specimens only have been found. The stones 

 are, no doubt, designedly acquired as a disguise and so 

 represent another form of life insurance. When sta- 

 tionary the mineralogist successfully baffles observation ; 

 but some day, peradventure, in a moment of preoccupa- 

 tion, it will reveal itself lurching along over the rough 

 country it favours. How few living things escape the 

 "penalties of Adam." Some bear sorrows, some stones. 



Among the fixed molluscs are what is known as the 

 winged shells, to which the "pearl oysters" belong. 

 The name is apt, for the expanded valves are not unlike 

 the form of a bird in flight. The illustration shows a rare 

 species, several specimens of which were found attached 

 to the mooring-chain of a buoy by what is known as 

 the "byssus," a bunch of tough fibres which passes 

 through an hiatus in the margins of the valves. Like 

 the king's daughter of the Psalmist, Pteria peasei is 

 "all glorious within," the nacreous surface, margined 

 with lustrous black, shining like silver with a tinge of 

 blue. 



Only a very small proportion of the species of shells 



