332 THE OCEAN WORLD. 
above the surface, it follows that, after being long immersed under 
‘water, the columns have been elevated to their present position. The 
temple has been restored to its primitive elevation, 
carrying with it, engraved in the marble, ineffaceable 
proofs of its immersion. Sir Charles Lyell has 
devoted a long chapter to the successive sinking 
and elevation of this temple, where the fact is most 
conclusively proved. 
The second family of the Gastrochenide, is a 
somewhat heterogeneous one, as it contains the 
genera Saxicava and Aspergillum. We have only 
space for a short account of the latter genus. 4. 
vaginiferum has received the strange name of the 
Watering-Pot, and is represented in Fig. 134. It 
inhabits a calcareous tube, thick, solid, of consider- 
able length, and nearly cylindrical, presenting at 
one extremity an opening fringed with one or many 
foliaceous folds in the form of frills, and at the 
other extremity a convex disc, pierced with holes. 
like a watering-pot, whence its name. The animal 
is attached by certain muscles to the interior of the 
tube. Chenu, to whom we are indebted for our 
information respecting this curious mollusc, tells 
us ‘that the animal which inhabits this curious 
shell was first described by Russell, whose account 
of it is deficient in the anatomical details, which 
might explain the utility of*the holes in the disc 
of the central fissure, and of the spiriform tubes 
found there.” We suppose that this arrangement 
is necessary in order to facilitate respiration ; and 
M. de Blainville thinks the small tubes are intended 
for the passage of the muscles which are necessary 
to fix the animal to the body on which it is to live, 
and in such a manner as to admit of its movements 
Fig, x34.—Aspergillum round a fixed point. 
vaginiferum (Lamarck). ‘The animal which inhabits the Aspergillum is 
elongated, contractile, and only occupies the upper 
part of the tube, but it can stretch itself out sufficiently for all its wants. 
Shells of this genus are rare, although a great number of species are 
known. They are found in the Red Sea, and in the seas of Australia 
and Java. The shells are generally of a white or yellowish tint ; some 
