336 MUSSEL CLIMBING. 
of the situation. The difficulty was overcome in this way 
—as each lowest thread became taut in an adverse direction, 
it was snapped off at the end attached to the animal. This, 
as I think, was done by two processes ; the one by softening 
that end of the thread by the animal's own juices, purposely 
applied, as the pupa in the cocoon moistens its silk envelope, 
when wishing to soften the fibres, so that it can break a hole 
through which the imago may emerge; the other by a moder- 
ate weeded pulling, thus breaking tiie filament at its weak- 
est point. 
The next day our little engineer had accomplished the 
wonderful feat of climbing to. the surface by ropes, fabricated 
during the ascent. Without delay it moored itself securely 
by a cluster of silken lines at the boundary where sky and 
water met, and was there allowed to enjoy the airing it had 
so deservingly won. Bravo! my little Mussel-man! No 
acrobat can beat thee on the ropes! 
And what are we to say to all this? Blind instinct, for- 
sooth! Who believes it? The wise men of the ages have 
written as the tradition of the elders— " byssus-bound," of 
our Mytilus. But it can make of its bonds, mooring lines 
of safety against the storm, and with consummate skill can 
build a silken stair-way into its, own wished for elysium of 
delight. It is some three years since the writer witnessed 
the facts here recorded, and to this day, the sight of a mus- 
sel inspires him with profound reflection on the ways of 
Him who made these creeping things of the sea. 
— It has seemed to the proa that in the perfection of movement shown by 
the Mo diola plicatula, as given above, a high stage of foot CE is indicated, 
such as would hint at a grade outranking a op ual edulis. gure inserted is th 
M. edulis ; but the process o —8S. E 
