2O2 BY THE DEEP SEA. 



Then there are the familiar Razor-shells (Soleri) that must 

 be dug out of the sand at low-water ; and quick work you will 

 find it, if you succeed in catching any specimens. Very good 

 examples may often be picked up on a wide sandy beach, but 

 minus the animal. They are sought for food, and the profes- 

 sional catchers are very expert in their movements they need 

 to be, or the business would not pay a dividend. Everybody 

 knows the razor-handle-like shells of Solen siliqua, if they have 

 no acquaintance with the animal. They are flattened cylinders, 

 widely open at each end for the extrusion of the foot and the 

 syphons. The hinge is near the front extremity of the shell, the 

 ligament in a full-grown specimen measuring an inch and a 

 half. There are two teeth in each valve, though some have 

 three in the left; but it is difficult to pick up empty shells 

 in which the teeth are intact. The Razors spend all their 

 lives buried vertically in the sand. When the sands are 

 covered by water they rise to the mouth of their burrow and 

 protrude the syphons, but those that are situated so far in 

 shore as to be uncovered at low- water, then plunge in to 

 a depth of a foot or two. They never leave their burrows, 

 except on compulsion, in the shape of the salt and spade of 

 their enemy, the fisherman. The species, with a very straight 

 margin to its shell, is the Pod Razor (S. siliqud) which attains 

 a length of eight inches ; that with a distinctly curved outline 

 is the Sabre Razor (5. ensis). 



A brief glance at some borers and excavators must suffice 

 to close this long chapter. The small, upper figure in accom- 

 panying plate is the Red-nosed Borer (Saxicava rugosd), a 

 species that largely helps the sea in its ceaseless attacks upon 

 the coast line. It is the office of the Borer to excavate cells 

 in the face of the rock, and as it is never solitary in its work, 

 but attacks a rock in " gangs," as a human excavator would 

 put it, the result is the complete honey-combing of the surface. 

 They may often be found free in crevices of the rocks and 

 ?.bout the roots of seaweeds that Alsatia for a very varied 



