96 THE NAUTILUS. 
us disappeared from sight. Consequently we proceeded more 
cautiously. Much to our surprise and delight these strange ob- 
jects proved to be a colony of Razors (Solen ensis) roaming over 
the beach apparently having a frolic. By a strong and quick 
stroke of their foot they threw themselves up into the air and 
from place to place. They ascended something like two feet or 
more above the sand and leaped not less than three feet at one 
jump. Almost immediately after having landed on the beach 
at the end of one leap they leaped again, sometimes in one 
direction and sometimes in another. When their successive 
leaps were in the same general direction, as they most frequently 
were, they traveled over the beach about as fast as a person 
would ordinarily walk. We attempted to catch those which 
were the nearest to us, running for them as they were about to 
fall flat on the sand. They curved their foot downwardly, 
planting the end firmly in the sand and then by a straightening 
out of the foot rose from a prostrate to an upright position pre- 
paratory to boring a new burrow and sinking down into the 
sand with wonderful rapidity. They were so quick in their 
movements, that although we were with them for about two 
hours we were not able to catch hold of one before it had com- 
menced boring into the sand. We succeeded in capturing a 
few, only a very few, without injuring the shell. These few we 
grasped when the end of the shell had penetrated the sand 
something less than one inch. In case the shell had penetrated 
the sand a full inch or more at the time we grasped them, it 
was impossible to pull one out without crushing the shell. In 
our several attempts to do so we not only crushed the shell but 
also tore the animal asunder, securing only a part of it while 
the rest remained in the sand. 
I cannot state how many live Razors we saw that day, but 
there seemed to be no end of them. We could conceive of no 
reason as to why so many Razors were then out of their holes, 
other than that they came out of their own free will as I am 
confident that they did. But I find at least two scientific pub- 
lications in which it is stated that ‘‘They never voluntarily 
leave their burrows.’’ One English work is more conservative 
and probably correct in its statement that ‘‘ the Solens rarely 
leave their burrows voluntarily.’’ 
