TOE AVOXDERS OF THE SHORE. 61 



tion will be obtained by supposing it to be made 

 of polished cornelian." 



Hardly that, most amiable and amusing of 

 naturalists : it is too opaque for cornelian ; and 

 the ti'ue symbol is, as I said before, in form, 

 size, and color, one of those great red capsicums 

 which hang drying in every Covent- Garden 

 seedsman's window. Yet is your simile better 

 than the guess of a certain Countess, Avho, 

 entering a room wherein a couple of Cardium 

 tuberculatum were waltzing about a plate, ex- 

 claimed, " O dear ! I always heard that ray 

 pretty red coral came out of a fish, and here it 

 is all alive ! " 



" This beautiful and versatile foot," continues 

 Mr. Gosse, " is suddenly thrust out sideways, to 

 the distance of four inches from the shell ; then, 

 its point being curved backwards, the animal 

 pushes it strongly against any opposing object, 

 by the resistance of which the whole animal, 

 shell and all, makes a considerable step forwards. 

 If the cockle were on its native sands, the leaps 

 thus made would doubtless br' more precise in 

 their direction, and much more efTectivc : but 

 cooped up with its fellows, in a <lcop di.sli, all 

 these Herculean eflTorts availed only to knock 



