A STORM.— RAZOR FISHES. 139 



like edge, and the owner of it makes a fierce 

 struggle for liberty, the poor fisherman often 

 has his foot badly cut before the prize is 

 secured. 



" Razor fishes belong to the order Siphoni- 

 da, some members of which are dubbed 'wa- 

 tering pots,' on account of their strong siphons, 

 many inches in length. In fact, in the Gh/ci- 

 meris ffenerosa of our own coast the siphon 

 attains to a full yard. 



" Their habit of spouting out jets of water 

 when disturbed is one way by which they are 

 discovered, and gives them the additional name 

 of ' spoutfishes.' " 



As the doctor finished, Undine asked : 

 " What did you mean by saying, ' some sheDs 

 were moored by cables of the animal's own 

 spinning ? ' " 



" Oh, those are the byssus spinners ! " said 

 the doctor, and going to a shelf he took sev- 

 eral shells from it. First he displayed a pearly 

 Anomia, the undervalve of which was flat, with 

 a hole near one extremity to allow of the pas- 

 sage of the byssus tuft for attachment; then 

 he showed them a scallop with a notch through 

 which the stout byssus fiber was passed ; then 

 a mussel, saying : " The inmates of these shells 



knew how to spin a tuft of fibers which in 

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