THE SABRE RAZOR 55 



for even if you pour down a whole handful of salt 

 the animal will never come up a second time. 



The razor is very good to eat, if its tough 

 leathery skin is slipped off, and on some parts of 

 the coast it is often used for food. The fisher- 

 men use it for bait, too, and catch it by means 

 of a slender iron rod with a barbed tip, which 

 they thrust into its body as it lies at the bottom 

 of its burrow. 



PLATE XIX 

 THE SABRE RAZOR (3) 



There are several different kinds of Razors, 

 and one of them is called the "sabre razor," 

 because its shells are curved, just like the 

 scabbard of a sabre. It is fairly common, but 

 you are never likely to find its burrows, unless 

 you go to look for them just at low-water after 

 a spring-tide, because it almost always lives 

 below the ordinary low-water mark. But after 

 spring-tides which come twice in every month, 

 once when the moon is new and once when it 

 is full the waves retreat much farther than they 

 do at other times. Then, if you go right down 

 to the water's edge, you may often find creatures 

 which you will never meet with higher up on the 

 beach. And one of these is the sabre razor. 



