OLD WATER-WORN SHELLS. 
231 
tg the seeker after the strange truths that lie likkleu 
at the bottom of the sea. 
Unless the mind is prepared by education, minute 
beauties lie hid from the human eye, and the sailors, 
who stand around me, gaze at the tub of sandy mud 
and broken shells, yet all fail to see the delicate 
lacclike beauty and the fragile elegance of form 
assumed by the liinnerous organic creatures which 
encrust the dull hat stones, and the odd and broken 
pecten valves wdiich we have fished up with so 
much labour from the bottom of the sea. 
These old dead water-worn shells are seldom 
altogether worthless, and should never be thrown 
away without at least a cursory examination. 
Sino-ular hermit-crabs often take possession of these 
deserted houses ; rare Calyptrm often nestle snugly 
in the apertures of the univalve kind, while very 
frequently Serpulm with highly elaborate tubes 
covered with charming sculpture coil themselves 
about the battered ruin. On the flat valves of the 
\)ivalves whole colonies of lovely fragile polyzoa 
may encrust the surface, and little fairy, graceful, 
