MUSSEL CLIMBING. 333 
about five-eighths of an inch in length, turn his foot to most 
excellent account. We had pulled the youngster's beard off, 
and then had deposited him at the bottom of a deep aqua- 
rium. The water was probably but poorly aerated, hence 
he was evidently ill at ease, and to our astonishment he at 
once began travelling over the pebbly bottom, then up the 
glass side with the utmost facility and grace. The foot 
moved precisely as any univalve gasteropod would do, and 
with the same easy gliding motion. The movement was 
continued without interruption until it had reached the sur- 
face of the water, a distance of not less than ten inches, 
which added to the distance travelled over the bottom, was 
probably equal to fourteen inches. At the surface it lost no 
time in spinning its byssus, which it fixed to the side for a 
permanent abode. 
For its lively colors, perhaps rather ruthlessly, we had 
picked this little fellow out of a large family cluster, snugly 
packed in a hole in one of the piles of the dock. It wasa 
large group of all sizes, literally bound together by the 
silken cords of —attachment shall we say ? 
A fellow captive was a full grown, black, edible mussel, 
torn from its anchorage, a stone near by, at low tide. e 
afterwards found ensconced in this black shell, an amount of 
intelligence, which filled us with astonishment. If his 
youthful fellow prisoner could beat him at walking, he was 
about to accomplish the feat of climbing to the same posi- 
tion by means of a species of engineering of a very high 
order. 
In order the better to understand this singular feat, let us 
introduce it by the narration of some spider tactics we once 
witnessed. The insect had captured a large beetle, but 
could not get it to its web, and seemed indisposed to prey 
upon it away from its den. It had dragged the prey under 
the web, which was about two feet above. It ran up toa 
point close by its web; there it attached a thread, by which 
it speedily descended, and then attached the other end to its 
