334 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Slow motion Immured state. 



luxurious plenty. Upon this seemingly thin diet 

 it by degrees grows larger and larger, and soon 

 finds itsflf under the necessity of increasing the 

 dimensions of its habitation and its shell. 



The motion of the animal is remarkably slow; 

 its progress keeps pace with the growth of its 

 body ; and, in proportion as k becomes larger, it 

 makes its way farther into the rock. When it 

 has got a certain way in, it then turns from its 

 former direction and hollows downward ; till, at 

 last, when its habitation is completed, the whole 

 apartment resembles the bowl of a tobacco-pipe; 

 the hole in the shank being that by which the 

 animal entered. Thus immured, it lives in dark- 

 ness, indolence, and plenty; it never removes 

 from the narrow mansion into which it has 

 penetrated, and seems perfectly content with 

 being inclosed in its own sepulchre. 



Notwithstanding the pholas is thus shut up, it 

 is not so solitary as might naturally be supposed, 

 for though it is immured in its hole, without 

 egress, when grown to a great size, and incapa- 

 ble to get out by the way it made to get in, yet 

 many of this kind often meet in the heart of the 

 rock, and sometimes above twenty are discovered 

 within a few inches of each other. 



