THE SHOEFS OF BRITAIN. 93 



poor on many of our shores, is enabled to move witli 

 considerable rapidity by means of the organ to which 

 I have just alluded. It is somewhat like a tongue, 

 and can assume a great variety of shapes. The 

 Cockle burrows in the mud ; having lengthened and 

 stiflened its tongue or foot, it pushes it as far as it 

 can reach into the mud ; then bentling the tip into a 

 hook, it forcibly contracts it, and thus brings its 

 body, shell and all, into the hole. The Eazor-shell. 

 a shell common on sandy beaches, of a long narrow 

 form, has this powder still more remarkably deve- 

 loped. 



Many of the islands which stud the sea around the 

 north and west coasts of Scotland are remarkable for 

 the stern grandeur of their precipitous cliffs. One 

 might almost imagine that the surges of the mighty 

 Atlantic, dashing against them for ages with un- 

 broken fury, had undermined their solid foundations, 

 and worn for themselves numerous passages, leaving 

 only columnar rocks of vast height, detached from 

 one another, though of similar formation and con- 

 struction. Such a rock is the Holm of Noss, appa- 

 rently severed from the Isle of Noss, from which it 

 is about a hundred feet distant ; but the cliffs are 

 of stupendous height, and far below, in the narrow 

 gorge, the raging sea boils and foams, so that the 

 beholder can scarcely look downward without horror. 

 But stern necessity impels men to enterprises, from 

 which the boldest would otherwise shrink : to obtain 

 a scanty supply of coarse food for himself and family 

 the hardy inhabitant of the Orkneys dares even the 

 terrors of the HoLm of Noss. In a small boat, with 



