RED-NOSES. 59 



wards. The spines are placed in rows, like the teeth of 

 a saw ; those towards the lower part of the shell being 

 sharp and pointed, while those above, being now useless, 

 are not renewed." 1 



In this limestone cliff we shall find other borers, for 

 you may see even at a considerable distance how holed 

 and honeycombed its surface is ; the cavities being so 

 numerous, so close, and so irregular in their direction, 

 that the whole face of the rock is fashioned into small 

 sharp-edged shapeless points. Nor need we be long in 

 finding the industrious masons who thus rough-point 

 acres upon acres, nay miles upon miles, of limestone 

 rock. Here in ten thousand orifices you discern little 

 double-tipped knobs of crimson flesh, which, as soon as 

 you disturb them, shoot at you a column of water and 

 then disappear within their fortress, having exhausted 

 their artillery. The fishermen know them well, and use 

 them for bait, applying to them the familiar but ex- 

 pressive soubriquet of Bed-noses. 2 



It is not so easy to get at these as at the Pholades, 

 because of the superior hardness of the stone which they 

 excavate. With the chisel, however, we need not fail 

 of uncovering a few, especially as their burrows are but 

 shallow. Here they are, half-a-dozen in a block as big 



1 Zoologist, p. 6541. 



2 Saxicava rugosa ; represented by the smaller figure in Plate vi. 



