94 APRIL. 



foot ; a monopod he is : this is all the foot he has. It 

 is clad in neither shoe nor stocking ; and truly it needs 

 it not. Never was the silken-hosed foot of cardinal 

 arrayed like this. But see to what an extent the organ 

 protrudes ! four inches from the valves' edges does its 

 tip reach ; smooth, lubricous, taper, with a knee at the 

 upper part, and the toe bent in the form of a hook. As 

 to its general appearance when thus extended, I have 

 compared it to a finger of polished carnelian ; but Mr. 

 Kingsley thinks that this resemblance will not hold, the 

 foot being too opaque for that gem : he likens it to a 

 long capsicum, which is, however, too dull and too dark ; 

 and he tells a story of a certain (mythic, I fear) countess 

 who, seeing it for the first time, exclaimed, " Oh, dear ! 

 I always heard that my pretty red coral came out of a 

 fish, and here it is, all alive !" 



Nay ; after all, it is what it is ; and those compari- 

 sons just help one who has never seen it, to form some 

 conception of its appearance ; but by one who has, all 

 will be rejected as inadequate. 



And as to what the brilliant organ is going to do, 

 that we see. For the long taper foot being thrust to its 

 utmost, feels about for some resisting surface, that stone, 

 half buried in the sand, for instance ; which no sooner 

 does it feel than the hooked point is pressed stiffly 

 against it, the whole foot by muscular contraction is 



