283 



notwithstanding. On breaking some of these &tones $ 

 one finds neaV thirty live fish, though no opening can 

 be perceived on the outside. Each has just room to 

 open its shell, the inside of which is white, the out- 

 side ash-colour ; the largest is four or five inches long. 

 Both (he fish itself and its juices are so luminous, 

 one may see to read by it ; and even water in which it 

 has been squeezed, put into a glass, will shine tea or 

 twelve hours. 



Likewise in Toulon harbour are found solid stones 

 containing in separate cells, secluded from all commu- 

 nication with the air, several living shtll.fish. The 

 same are found along the coast of Alcona, in stones 

 weighing fifty pounds and upwards. The outside of 

 which is soft, but the inside so hard as to require an 

 iron mall, and a strong arm to break them. 



Pholades Bollani, when divested of their shells, 

 resemble a roundish, soft pudding. ^ith no instrument 

 that seetns in the least fitied foi boring into stones, 

 or even penetrating the soiu st substance. A pholas 

 is furnished with two teeth indeed ; but these are pla. 

 ced in such a situation as to bv incapable of touching 

 the hollow surface of its stony dwelling. It has also 

 two covers to its shell that oj en and shut at either 

 end ; but these a*e totally unserviceable to it as 

 a miner. The instrument with which it performs all 

 its operations, and buries itself in the hardest rocks, 

 is only a broad ftesi<y substance, somewhat resembling 

 a tongue, that is seen issuing from the bottom of its 

 shell. With this soft yielding instrument, it perfo- 

 rates the most solid marbles ; and having, while little 

 and young, made its way, by a very narrow passage 

 into the substance of the stone, it then begins to grow 

 bigger, and thus to enlarge its apartment. While 

 yet naked and very small, it has effected an entrance, 

 and has buried its body in the stone : it there conti- 

 nues for life at its ease ; the sea-water that enters at 

 its apertures supplying it with luxurious plenty. When 



