PHOLAS MUSSEL COCKLE. 93 



my pages, by introducing the humorous account 

 which that gentleman gives relative to this mat- 

 ter: 



" Many persons are aware that the Common Cockle 

 can perform gymnastic feats of no mean celebrity; 

 but the evolutions of Signer Tuberculato are worth 

 seeing. Some of the troupe I had put into a pan of 

 sea water, others I had turned out into a dish dry, as 

 knowing that an occasional exposure to the air is a 

 contingency that they are not unused to. By and by, 

 as we were quietly reading, our attention was attracted 

 to the table where the dish was placed, by a rattling 

 uproar, as if flint stones were rolling one over the other 

 about the dish. < Oh, look at the Cockles ! ' was the 

 exclamation; and they were indeed displaying their 

 agility, and their beauty, too, in a fine style. The 

 valves of the largest were gaping to the extent of 

 three quarters of an inch ; but the intermediate space 

 was filled up by the spongy -looking fleshy mantle, of 

 a semi-pellucid orange hue. At one end protruded 

 the syphons, two thick short tubes, soldered, as it 

 were, into one, and enveloped on all sides in a shaggy 

 fringe of cirri, or tentacles. The circular orifices of 

 these tubes small holes perfectly round, with a 

 white border had a curious appearance, as we 

 looked at the heart-shaped end of the valves; the 

 discharging orifice, however, was but rarely visible, 

 being usually closed, while the other remained con- 

 stantly open. But these things were what we after- 

 wards saw; for some time we could look at nothing 



