CHAPTER VI 



THE MOLLUSCA 



" See what a lovely shell, 

 Small and pure as a pearl, 

 Lying close to my foot, 

 Frail, but a work divine, 

 Made so fairly well, 

 With delicate spire and whorl, 

 How exquisitely minute 

 A miracle of design ! 



* * * * * 



Did he stand at the diamond door 

 Of his house in a rainbow frill ? 

 Did he push, when he was uncurl'd, 

 A golden foot or a fairy horn 

 Thro' his dim water-world ? " 



ALFRED TENNYSON'S exquisite lines bring to us, as we read them, 

 a mental picture of golden sands and a sun-kissed sea, breaking 

 in long, low, murmuring waves upon the shore, to scatter at our 

 feet some of the treasures of the deep, shells of beautiful form 

 and softest rainbow tint. And how often our first introduction 

 to the shells of the animals with which this chapter deals is made 

 during a holiday ramble on the seashore ! Should our interest 

 be aroused sufficiently by the specimens so collected to induce 

 us to endeavour to find out something about the inhabitants of 

 these delicately tinted shells, we very quickly discover that they 

 are most interesting and wonderful creatures. Indeed, the 

 Mollusca form one of the most important divisions of the animal 

 kingdom, including more than fifty thousand known species, 

 which live in the sea, in lakes, ponds, and streams, and upon 

 land. The Phylum includes the Octopus and Cuttlefish, the 

 Oysters, Whelks, Mussels, Scallops, Winkles, Snails, and Slugs, 

 and is divided into four great orders : the Cephalopoda, or head- 



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