CHAPTER VIII. 



I care not, Fortune, what you me deny ; 



You cannot rob me of free nature's grace ; 



You cannot shut the windows of the sky 



Through which Aurora shows her brightening face ; 



You cannot bar my constant feet to trace 



The lonely shore at dewy morn and eve. 



Let health my nerves and finer fibres brace, 



And I their toys to the great children leave ; 



Of nature, feeling, virtue, nought can me bereave. 



THOMSON. 



MOLLUSCA OF SOUTHPORT. 



HE Mollusca are destitute of internal skeleton, and have 

 soft bodies, often protected by an external shell, as in 

 the banded snail of our sandhills (Helix nemoralis}, and the 

 common cockle. The shell cannot be regarded as essential; 

 for of two species closely allied in structure, e.g., the snail 

 and slug, it is often present in one, and absent or very 

 imperfectly developed in the other. 



The Mollusca are further distinguished from the other 

 great sections of the invertebrate division of the Animal 

 Kingdom, the Articulata and Radiata, by the want of sym- 



