Nautilus and Ammonite. 129 



with from the surrounding fluid, give the desired 

 onward motion, and away the swimmer goes, his 

 long arms gathered closely together, and streaming 

 behind like the tail of a comet, and its round eyes 

 keeping a sharp look-out on either side. Should it 

 espy danger, the body and limbs are withdrawn 

 into the shell, and the fluid driven through the 

 central tube, so as to compress the air in the pearly 

 cells, and down sinks the swimmer once again to 

 his native depths, where 



11 The floor is of sand like the mountain drift, 



And the pearl shells spangle the flinty snow; 

 And from coral rocks the sea-plants lift 



Their boughs where the tides and billows flow. 



The water is calm and still below, 

 For the winds and waves are absent there ; 



And the sands are bright as the stars that glow 

 In the motionless fields of upper air. 

 And life in rare and beautiful forms 



Is sporting amid those bowers of stone, 

 And is safe, when the wrathful spirit of storms 



Has made the top of the waves his own." 



On the following page we give two figures of the 

 Argonaut, one of which represents him crawling at 

 the bottom of the sea, and the other swimming on 

 the surface. 



