TOO THE SEA-SHORE 



into slender threads. The tube itself is made 

 of larger grains, and is so tough and leathery 

 that you can give it quite a hard pull without 

 breaking it. But as it is at least a foot long, 

 and is nearly always carried down underneath 

 rocks or big stones, you will not find it at all 

 easy to dig it up. And the moment that you 

 alarm the little animal inside it always makes 

 its way right down to the very bottom of its tube. 



Sometimes a terebella will leave its tube and 

 go for a little swim in the pool, wriggling its 

 way through the water by first doubling its body 

 up and then stretching it out, ever and over again. 

 But it very soon gets tired with its exertions, 

 and sinks down to the bottom of the pool to rest. 

 Then, after awhile, it will set busily to work, 

 and make a new tube to live in instead of the 

 old one. 



There is another kind of terebella, called the 

 Shell-binder, which makes its tube of little bits 

 of broken shell instead of grains of sand. You 

 may find the ends of these tubes sticking up out 

 of the sand about half-way between high and 

 low water-mark. But they run down so deeply 

 that you will have to dig very hard indeed if 

 you want to get them out of the ground. 



