477 



CHAPTER LIT. 



SOLEN SILIQUA " THE RAZOR-SHELL." 



"Barest thou, Cassius, now 



Leap in with me into this angry flood, 



And swim to yonder point ? Upon the word, 



Accoutred as I was, I plunged in." 



WE need scarcely inform thee, gentle reader, that we 

 regard ourselves as being ardently devoted to the 

 study of Natural History, and gifted with a certain 

 amount of enthusiasm in the prosecution of our 

 favourite science ; were it not so, we should not be 

 now employed in penning these pages for thy instruc- 

 tion and amusement. It is not by any means our 

 intention to underrate, in thy presence, our own 

 prowess and self-devotion, and thus diminish our 

 claims to be thy exemplar, as well as thy guide ; but 

 there are limits to human endurance, which it behoves 

 the prudent naturalist to commiserate, and, however 

 indomitable may be thy own ardour and perseverance, 

 we plead for a moment the cause of thy weaker 

 brethren, whose notions of naturalizing may not be 

 quite commensurate with thine own. 



We happened some years ago to enjoy the pleasure 

 of a visit to the late Sir John Ross, the hero of the 



