PHOLAS MUSSEL COCKLE. 89 



delicacy of their texture, well shewn by the minute- 

 ness of the box in which they were enclosed." 



When collecting Mussels, you need not be at the 

 trouble either to put them in your bottle, or make 

 for them a sea-grass mattress whereon they may rest, 

 until you return home. They can make themselves 

 equally comfortable lying loose in the basket, or 

 confined in the pocket of your coat. 



Being lately at the rocks, with no apparatus for 

 preserving delicate marine specimens, I brought away, 

 for hatching purposes, a cluster of the eggs of Buc- 

 cinum undatum those w T hite bladdery masses that 

 are so commonly seen attached to the under sides of 

 rocks, &c. and also a companion cluster of the eggs 

 of the Purpura, which are also extremely common. 

 These look like a series of white miniature vases, or 

 urns, of elegant form, fixed by their base to the lower 

 surface of large boulders, or even loose stones. These 

 objects I put in my coat pocket, along with a small 

 Mussel, to which was attached a large frond of the 

 Saw-leaved Fucus (Fucus serratus). 



The egg clusters I duly placed in a small tank, and 

 amused myself by cutting off portions and examining 

 them under the microscope. Being absorbed in this 

 procedure, I forgot to release the Mussel from his 

 prison in the pocket of my paletot. Four days after 

 I discovered my omission, and naturally expected that 

 the poor bivalve would be defunct. Such was not 

 the case. His shell was tightly closed, but soon 

 opened again when placed in sea water. 



