THE TROCHtlS. 36? 



Description. Enemy to all the shelly tribe. 



THE TROCHUS, 



WHICH is commonly considered of the snail 

 species, has no mouth whatever, but simply a 

 kind of trunk, which, in proportion to the size 

 of the animal, is very long; this trunk is fleshy, 

 muscular, supple, and hollow; its extremity is 

 bordered with a cartilage, and toothed like a 

 saw. These snails are a predatory species, and 

 Very justly been stated to be among the shelly 

 tribe, what the tiger, eagle, and shark are to 

 beasts, birds, and fish. The whole race of shelled 

 animals, with every possible means, endeavor to 

 avoid their approach, conscious, as it were, that 

 whatever may be their size, their destruction is 

 inevitable, as the strongest covering is not proof 

 against the power of this rapacious enemy. The 

 shell is very thick, and the animal very clumsily 

 formed, yet it proceeds with greater swiftness 

 than almost any other shell fish, seizing its prey 

 with astonishing facility, and scarcely ever suf- 

 fering the object it once has in pursuit to escape. 

 Having once closed on the shell, however thick, 

 it almost instantaneously penetrates with its 

 augur-like trunk. Thus fixed, all efforts to 

 escape on the part of the other is entirely use- 

 less ; if it expand, and come to the surface, the 

 trochus comes up also; and if it plunge to the 

 bottom, the fell destroyer still maintains its hold. 



