96 APRIL. 



this description you would suppose it a most clumsy, 

 and ineffective, and slow business ; but indeed this is 

 very far from its character. The elongations and con- 

 tractions are made with great rapidity ; and almost 

 with the quickness of thought the unwieldy cockle, 

 when in full vigour and thoroughly alarmed, disappears 

 into his sandy fortress ; so fast, indeed, that you must 

 be very alert to overtake him and prevent his descent, 

 if you have no appliances but your two hands. 



Cuvier, in his elaborate and beautiful dissections of 

 the Mollusca, has demonstrated that this important, 

 organ is mainly composed of an immense multitude of 

 muscles, circular, longitudinal, and transverse, wonder- 

 ful in their complexity and arrangement, but most 

 perfectly adapted to impart variety, force, and precision 

 to its movements. In these respects*the human tongue 

 perhaps presents the closest parallel to its organization. 

 It is remarkable that at its upper or basal part it is 

 hollow, and encloses some of the viscera of the body. 



Here, under this low-lying ledge of rock, is another 

 shell, which in beauty perhaps excels even the gorgeous 

 cockle. It belongs to a genus pre-eminent for loveli- 

 ness, to which the name of the Goddess of Love has 

 been assigned. This is the Banded Venus. 1 The most 



1 Venus fasciata, of which a figure is given in the midst of the fore- 

 ground of Plate X. 



