SHORES OF THE CLYDE AND FIRTH. 141 
interior, that the neck springs from the muscles of the foot, 
which are attached to the shell, and surrounds the whole 
interior like a wall; and these muscles, particularly at the 
neck, shew a proportional strength five thousand times 
greater than that of the bull. If we strip the creature of 
its conical house, we notice that the soft, lustrous, round 
back, surmounted on the crown by a dark-brown pigment, 
and round the sides and base by a neutral tint, has no 
attachment to the shell, and seems to contain the liver 
and kindred organs. If we remove this portion, we find 
the stomach immediately beneath ; and this organ, to our 
astonishment, we see, occupies at least three-fourths of the 
entire area of the foot. Beneath the stomach and the sole 
of the foot no other organs intervene, and we have thus 
failed to discover from whence comes the supposed glue to 
supply the foot with adhesion. In piercing the soft back, 
however, we must admit that in the escaping brown fluid 
we detected the presence of a gummy substance, equal in 
strength to that very faint presence found on the foot; 
but we fear that the intervention of the large area of the 
stomach with its contents, exactly in the middle, annihilates 
the idea of this organ being the source of supply. Let us 
look at the foot itself. 
Taking the creature out of the water, and placing it on 
its back in the sun, we notice, with the aid of the lens, an 
innumerable host of little golden darts flying in rapid suc- 
cession over the face of the soft, watery foot. We are not 
prepared to say that these are the reflections of actual 
organs. While they may be such, otherwise they may be 
ocular delusions ; but we know their source. Watchirig the 
foot, we see a muscular wave rising at the far edge, and; 
crossing over, expends its force at the other. Another 
comes, and yet another ; and from these muscular waves we 
K 
