172 COLLECTOR'S RAMBLES 



and variously colored mantle fills up the zigzag space 

 between the valves ; but the instant one puts a stick 

 iii, the jaws shut together with a snap. 



Under the large masses of coral, we found many 

 cowries. They look like lumps of jelly when alive, 



GIANT CLAM. 



for they cover their shells with parts of their own 

 bodies. Brightly colored fishes of many kinds, decked 

 in black, blue, red, and gold, as gay as tropical but- 

 terflies, darted among the weeds and corals. 



Red cuttle-fishes, looking like immense spiders, 

 crawled about in the shallow tide-pools, or reached 

 out after us with their slimy arms from a crevice in 



