CHAPTER XXVI. 



CONCHIFERA AND GASTROPODA (Shell-jish). 



Such of our readers as are familiar with the fish-market 

 at Southampton have, doubtless, often seen a large sort 

 of shell-fish which are sold under the name of " Old 

 Maids." The fishwoman, perhaps herself an " old maid," 

 will tell you that these humble sisters of hers, these rivals 

 in celibacy, are dug up from the muddy margin of the 

 harbour, into which their burrow descends a foot or more 

 deep ; that the hunter for them is aware of their presence 

 by a jet of water spirted from the mouth of the hole as 

 soon as they become aware of his, a fact of which his ap- 

 proaching footsteps inform them ; and that he instantly 

 plunges his narrow spade or fork in an oblique direction, 

 and raises the unlucky bivalve, with a cloud of mud and 

 water, into the air. 



Now, if we examine one of these " Old Maids," which 

 naturalists designate as the Sand Gaper {My a arenaria), 

 we find that we have an animal closely resembling those 

 Ascidice that we lately described. It is enclosed in a 

 leathery wrinkled coat, with the two orifices placed near 

 the end of a rather long tube ; the internal anatomy 

 differs little from that of the creatures just named, ex- 



