166 NEST-BUILDERS. 



moist plaster, hides all asperities, so that there is nothing 

 to injure the delicate appendages of the enclosed animal. 

 Tapestry, as a covering for walls, was once the proud and 

 costly ornament of royal apartments ; but ancient though 

 the art was, I shall answer for it that our little marine arti- 

 san took no hint from the Gobelins, nor from the workmen 

 of Arras, nor from those of Athens, nor even from the ear- 

 liest tapissiers of the East. I doubt not, that from the 

 time Noah's ark rested on the mountain of Ararat, the fore- 

 fathers of these beautiful little Limas have been construct- 

 ing their coral cottages, and lining them with well-wrought 

 tapestry in the peaceful bay of Lamlash. 



" When the Lima is taken out of its nest, and put into 

 a jar of sea-water, it is one of the most beautiful marine 

 animals you can look upon. The shell is beautiful ; the 

 body of the animal within the shell is beautiful ; and the 

 orange fringe-work outside of the shell is highly ornamental. 

 Instead of being sluggish, it swims about with great vigour. 

 Its mode of swimming is the same as that of the scallop. 

 It opens its valves, and suddenly shutting them, expels the 

 water, so that it is impelled onwards or upwards ; and 

 when the impulse thus given is spent, it repeats the opera- 

 tion, and thus moves on by a succession of jumps. When 

 moving through the water in this way, the reddish fringe- 

 work is like the tail of a fiery comet. The filaments of 

 the fringe are probably useful in catching its prey. They 

 are very easily broken off, and it is remarkable that they 

 seem to live for many hours after they are detached from 

 the body, twisting themselves like so many worms."* 



I shall conclude this long letter with a table, from the 

 study of which you may be enabled to methodize the 

 information I have endeavoured to give you relative to the 

 locomotion of the mollusca ; and it will also exhibit the 

 analogies, which, in this view, exist between the various 

 orders and families. 



* Excursions to Arran, p. 319. 



