lOG GLAUCUS ; OR, 



sailant is feeling and shifting along his side, till 

 he reaches one end of him ; and then the black 

 lips expand, and slowly and surely the curved 

 finger begins packing him end-foremost down into 

 the gullet, where he sinks, inch by inch, till the 

 swelling which marks his place is lost among the 

 coils, and he is probably macerated to a pulp 

 long before he has reached the opposite extrem- 

 ity of his cave of doom. Once safe down, the 

 black murderer slowly contracts again into a 

 knotted heap, and lies, like a boa with a stag 

 inside him, motionless and blest. 



There ; we must come away now, for the tide 

 is over our ankles : but touch, before you go, one 

 of those little red mouths which peep out of the 

 stone. A tiny jet of water shoots up almost into 

 your face. The bivalve * who has burrowed into 

 the limestone knot (the softest part of the stone 

 to his jaws, though the hardest to your chisel) 

 is scandalized at having the soft mouths of hi^ 

 siphons so rudely touched, and taking your finger 

 for some bothering Annelid, who wants to nibble 

 him, is defending himself; shooting you, as natu- 

 ralists do humming-birds, Avith water. Let him 

 rest in peace ; it will cost you ten minutes' hard 

 * Saxicava ruf/osa. 



