816 
. HUGE OLD MADEEPORES. 
and badgers which we j)urchased or received were 
boiled in the coppers, and served out as savoury 
rations to the hungry sailors. Great, therefore, was 
their astonishment, when friend Bedwell neatly 
decapitated the quadivimane, leaving the body neg- 
lected on the beach, and bearing off the head, care- 
fully wrapped in a newspa 2 :>er, for the doctor's delec- 
tation. 
There is one tribe of moUusca which usually 
escaj^es the notice of collectors, on account of their 
living buried in madrepore-masses and corals. As 
an instance of the hicility with which good sj^eci- 
mcns of these burrowing mollusks may be obtained, 
I will relate my 0-Sinia exj)erience. 
A shallow bay indents the promontory on the 
mainland on the opj^osite side, which, on investiga- 
tion, offers nothing so tempting as the numbers of 
huge old madrepores which strew the beach. They 
are large and heavy, and how to transport them to 
a convenient spot was a question that required some 
consideration. Collinson solved the j>roblem, how- 
ever, by selecting a number of small Nipong 
