ROUNl/ THE INDIAN MUSEUM. 109 



very fond of Sea-cucumbers, which they spend much time 

 and trouble in procuring on festive occasions." 



THE MOLLUSCA. 



OR 



SOFT-BODIED ANIMALS. 



" The Molluscs constitute the last group of the In- 

 vertebrata or animals without a skeleton. A glance 

 at the contents of the cases labelled " Mollusca," will 

 show what a great variety of forms they must have, 

 and how grotesque-looking some of them are. In some 

 of the groups hitherto examined, we found one or more 

 types such as were quite familiar to us ; for instance, 

 among the vast multitudes of animals known, as inserts, 

 we came across the butterflies, the cockroaches, and the 

 grasshoppers ; then, there were the leeches and the earth- 

 worms among another group, and so on. Now, let us 

 carefully examine the Mollusca group, and see if we 

 can discover any familiar forms of animals among them, 

 It is exactly as I anticipated. Just look at these crea- 

 tures, please, and tell me what they are ? Quite right, 

 they are snails, and there are a great variety of them, 

 including our common garden and pond snails, (gendi^ 

 samuk, gugli}. The garden-snail may be regarded as a 

 typical Mollusc, with a soft body, without segments, 

 rings, or rays, protected by a hard shell, into which the 

 body can be withdrawn. All of you must have seen 

 garden-snails at one time or another, and I dare say 



