TETE INDIAN OCEAN. S43 



SO that their sudden disappearance seemed to be the 

 work of magic. One of the jMalays was employed 

 in catching them, as they are considered to be a 

 great delicacy. He used for the purpose a thin 

 plank, four feet long, and one foot broad ; on one 

 end of which were fixed several sharp-pointed nails, 

 the points projecting beyond the end of tlie plank. 

 He placed the plank flat upon the mud, and with 

 the right knee resting on it, and kicking the mud 

 with the left foot, he shot along the surface with 

 great rapidity, the sharp-pointed nails transfixing 

 the little creatures before they could succeed in 

 burying themselves sufficiently deep to avoid them. 

 This is a dangerous sport, and requires great skill 

 in the fisherman to prevent accidents ; for should he 

 lose his plank, death would be almost ine\dtable, 

 the mud not having sufficient consistence to support 

 him without the aid of this simple contrivance." * 



Numberless creatures of the inferior classes, some 

 of which are of exquisite delicacy and beauty, float 

 on the surface of the Indian Ocean ; often in such 

 immense hosts as to cover the sea for miles around. 

 The Violet-snail {Jantlnna fragilis) is one of these, 

 whose shell much resembles that of our garden-snail 

 in form and size, but is of a pearly white above, 

 and benaith violet. "\Mien alive it is covered with 

 a slippery membrane. A singular floating apparatus 

 projects horizontally from the aperture of the shell, 

 resembling a collection of air-bubbles, but composed 

 of a delicate white membrane, inflated and puckered 

 on the surface into the bubble-lilve divisions alluded 



• Eastern Seas, p. 213. 



