VIII. 

 AUGUST. 



WHAT eager pursuer of marine animals has not 

 gloated over a rock-pool? On all our rocky coasts 

 we find them more or. less developed ; but it is on these 

 south-western shores, where the compact limestone juts 

 out into promontories, that we find them in perfection. 

 The burrowing mollusca specially favour the limestone ; 

 the Saxicava, I think, lives in no other medium ; and 

 it is to the operation of this coarse ugly little shell-fish 

 that this rock is indebted for the honey comb -like ex- 

 cavation which has eroded its surface. Below a few 

 inches this erosion does not extend, for the Saxicava is 

 but a small animal, and its siphons must reach the ori- 

 fice of its burrow ; therefore it never goes deeper into 

 the stone than will allow it comfortably to bathe its 

 red nose in the free water, though it is not at all par- 

 ticular about the angle to the surface at which it bores. 

 The myriads and myriads of these auger-holes that have 

 been bored remain, though the feeble animals perish 



