SHELL-FISH. 
239 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
CONCHIFERA AND GASTROPODA ( Shell-fish ). 
Soch 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 ids, a fact of which his ap- 
proaching footsteps inform them ; and that ho 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. 
How, 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 
Ascidia: 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- 
