THE ■VVOXDEUS OF THE SHORE. 107 



work, and much dirt, to extract him : but if you 

 are fond of shells, secure one or two of those 

 beautitul pink and straw-colored scallops,* who 

 have gradually incorporated the layers of their 

 lower valve with the roughnesses of the stone, 

 destroying thereby the beautiful form which be- 

 longs to their race, but not their delicate color. 

 There are a few more bivalves too, adhering to 

 the stone, and those rare ones, and two or three 

 delicate MangcUce and Nasce are trailing their 

 graceful spires up and down in search of food. 

 That little bright red and yellow pea, too, touch 

 it, — the brilliant colored cloak is withdrawn, 

 and, instead, you have a beautifully ribbed pink 

 cowry,t our only European representative of 

 that grand tropical family. Cast one wondering 

 glance, too, at the forest of zo()i)hytes and corals, 

 Leprnlica and Flitstnc, and those (juaint blue stars, 

 set In brown jelly, which are no /.oophytes, but 

 respcctiiblc mollusks, each with his well-formed 

 mouth and intestines, J but combined in a peculiar 

 form of Communism, of wliich all one can say 

 is, that one hopes they like it ; and that, at all 

 cvcnta, they ngrec better than tin- heroes and 

 heroines of .Mr. Hawthorne's Ulilliedalc Komance. 

 * I'lclcnjnitio. ^ C'jpraa Eurrqimt. \ DotnjUi. 



