BARNACLES AND ACORN-SHELLS. 177 



Now the creature is no other than the Ship- Barnacle (Lepas 

 anatiferd), one of the chief obstacles to speed in the old days 

 of " the wooden walls of England." When a ship had made 

 an ocean voyage it was necessary to dock her and scrape off 

 the enormous quantities of Barnacles that not merely added 

 to her weight, but offered strong opposition to her passage 

 through the waters. To-day, what with steel vessels and 

 patent anti-fouling compositions with which to paint the ship's 



SHIP-BARNACLE. 



bottom, the poor Barnacles find their world much narrower 

 than formerly, and with fewer openings for the enterprise of 

 their race. Should you come across such a barnacle-ridden 

 waif of the sea, consider it carefully. You shall find in it 

 matter of interest, and, in addition to its provision of some- 

 thing for your imagination to play round, in your efforts to get 

 a clue to the vessel of which the wreckage once formed part, 

 the life-story of the Barnacle itself is a romance. 



