i io LIFE AND HER CHILDREN. 
his parent, but by and by he is cast out, to make 
room for others (for one oyster may lay as many as 
two million eggs in a year), and swims away by means 
of a number of lashes, which extend beyond his thin 
transparent shell. Woe betide him then if he comes 
near to a hungry fish, or crab, or sea-anemone, for 
millions of young oysters are swallowed by these 
animals ; yet he is not quite without help, for at this 
time he has two little red eye-spots, and can see his 
danger, whereas he loses these after he is fixed to 
the rock. Still even then his nerves seem sensitive 
to light, for his valves are said to close at once when 
a boat passes over him in clear water, and his sense 
of touch is very acute all round his mantle ; ' and as 
he builds his shell firm and strong, he can show fight 
against many intruders, and live sometimes for ten, 
twelve, or fifteen years. 
But it is amid many perils, for the star-fish can 
apply his greedy mouth to the valves, and stifle him 
in his grasp, and annelids or sea-worms can work 
their way into his shell, while the whelk with his 
rasping tongue bores right through it, and feeds on 
his tender flesh ; and, if he escapes all these, the 
boring sponges destroy hundreds of his race by 
riddling the shells with holes, and growing upon the 
graves of their victims. Even his own children often 
cause his death, by settling down upon his upper 
valve, so that when a bank becomes densely popu- 
lated those underneath are stifled in a living grave. 
From the oyster which lives on banks at many 
fathoms depth, we will pass on to the mussel anchored 
nearer to the shore on the mud-banks and groynes 
which are uncovered at low water. Here the waves 
