THE WONDERS OF THE SHORE. 63 



study, in form and colour and cliiaro-oscuro, for 

 any artist ; and a mile or so further along a 

 pleasant road, mtli land-locked glimpses of the 

 bay, to the broad sheet of sand which lies between 

 the village of Paignton and the sea — sands trodden 

 a hundred times by Montagu and Turton, perhaps, 

 by Dillwyn and Gaertner, and many another pioneer 

 of science. And once there, before we look at 

 anything else, come down straight to the sea marge ; 

 for yonder lies, just left by the retiring tide, a 

 mass of life such as you will seldom see again. 

 It is somewhat ugly, perhaps, at first sight ; for 

 ankledeep are spread, for some ten yards long by 

 five broad, huge dirty bivalve shells, as large as 

 the hand, each with its loathly grey and black 

 siphons hanging out, a confused mass of slimy 

 death. Let us walk on to some cleaner heap, and 

 leave these, the great Lutraria Elliptica, wliich 

 have been lying buried by thousands in the sandy 

 mud, each with the point of its long siphon above 

 the surface, sucking in and driving out again the 

 salt water on wliich it feeds, till last night's ground- 



