2468 The Seaside Book. 



Such are a few of the leading extracts from my note-book for December and 

 January. The notes were taken at the moment of observation, before an unlimited 

 choice of specimens ; in many instances at night, on the cold dark rocks, by the light 

 of the moon or a lantern ; at other times at sea, in a fishing-boat ; and never at any 

 time without the objects on which they treat being before me. 



Kobert Gray. 

 West-end, Govan, near Glasgow, 

 May 1, 1849. 



(To be continued). 



The Sea-side Book* 



[Perhaps the most taking title and subject ever devised for a book on Natural 

 History. The knowledge possessed by the author, and the elegance and truth of the 

 numerous wood-engravings, greatly enhance the value of this agreeable little book. 

 I think its style rather too technical and abstruse for the generality of sea-side idlers : 

 sometimes, however, the author descends to the level of non-scientific readers, as will 

 be seen from the following quotations. — Edward Newman!] 



" The Mollusca which inhabit sandy shores habitually, and in the greatest num- 

 bers, are not the univalve or snail-like families, whose organization is more adapted 

 for crawling over rocks and sea-plants, where also they find their appropriate food ; — 

 but another very distinct group of shell-coated animals, called Conchifera, or Testa- 

 ceous Acephala, which are capable of living buried, sometimes to a considerable 

 depth, in the sands. Some of this class of animals are indeed confined to rocky 

 places, anchoring themselves in various ways permanently in a position, either on a 

 rock or on the stem of a sea-weed ; or forming hollow chambers by burrowing in the 

 solid rock itself; but the majority of species inhabit sandy places, and their shells 

 continually meet us on the sandy shore, while the living animals may be detected 

 buried along the margin of the retreated tide. The shell, in all these animals, con- 

 sists of two principal, saucer-shaped pieces, more or less perfectly covering the body 

 of the animal, and united together by a more or less complex hinge, opened by a 

 highly elastic ligament. The scallop and the common cockle offer well-known exam- 

 ples of such a shell : — the first having a simpler structure, both in the hinge and in 

 the animal, is better adapted for explaining the general features of organization, while 

 the latter may be instanced as affording modifications of structure which adapt it to 

 the peculiar locality to which it is confined. 



" On opening the valves of a living scallop we perceive, within the margin of the 

 shell, a soft membrane, which lines the whole of the inner surface, and encloses the 

 body of the animal as in a cloak, open in front through the centre ; so that a curtain 



* * The Sea-side Book, being an Introduction to the Natural History of the British 

 Coasts, by W. H. Harvey, M.D., Sec.' London: Van Voorst. 1649. 



