170 REAUMUR ON THE MYTILUS. 



' Fairy Queen' thus humorously reads a lesson to 

 an ambitious man, 



" He is a shepherd in gree, 

 But hath been long ypent, 

 One day he sat upon a hill, 

 As now thou wouldst mee; 

 But I am taught by Algrinds ill, 

 To love the lowe degree. 

 For sitting so, with barred scalpe, 

 An eagle soared hye, 

 That weeniv? ?'$ white head rcas chalke^ 

 A shell-fish down let fly e ! 

 She weened the shell-fish to have broke, 

 But therewith bruised his brayne^ 

 So now astoined with the stroke, 

 Hee lyes in lingering payne ! " 



It seems remarkable that the 'illustrious French 

 naturalist/ Reaumur, should have been the first, if not 

 to discover, at least to publish, any description of the 

 manner in which the Mussel spins its silken cable. 

 Yet one hour's experience in a tea-cup or tumbler 

 will exhibit most of the features in this interesting 

 process. 



That Reaumur's narrative, although usually copied 

 by most writers of the present day, is not strictly 

 correct, and, moreover, that the foot of the mussel is 

 not ' useless as an instrument of progression' (as 

 generally asserted), may be easily proved to the 

 satisfaction of the student by adopting some such 

 simple experiment as that which I am now about to 

 describe : 



Being at the sea-side on a fine summer afternoon, 

 I procured three specimens (I might have had as 

 many hundreds if disposed) of the Mytilus. On my 



