THE
“SHOWN TO
THE CHILDREN”
SERIES

1. BEASTS

With 48 Coloured Plates by Percy J. Billinghurst. Letterpress by Lena Dalkeith.

2. FLOWERS

With 48 Coloured Plates showing 150 flowers, by Janet Harvey Kelman. Letterpress by C. E. Smith.

3. BIRDS

With 48 Coloured Plates by M. K. C. Scott. Letterpress by J. A. Henderson.

4. THE SEA-SHORE

With 48 Coloured Plates by Janet Harvey Kelman. Described by Rev. Theodore Wood.

THE “SHOWN TO THE CHILDREN” SERIES
Edited by Louey Chisholm

THE SEA-SHORE

[Plate I]

1. and 2. THE GOBIES.

The Sea-Shore
SHOWN TO THE CHILDREN

BY
JANET HARVEY KELMAN

DESCRIBED BY
REV. THEODORE WOOD

FORTY-EIGHT COLOURED PICTURES

LONDON & EDINBURGH
T. C. & E. C. JACK

Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.
At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh

LIST OF SEA-SHORE WONDERS

ABOUT THIS BOOK

THIS book is intended to help little boys and girls to use their eyes. The world is full of beautiful sights and wonderful creatures; and some of the most beautiful and wonderful of all are to be seen on the sea-shore. So I have tried to tell boys and girls, who are fortunate enough to visit the sea-side, what they ought to look for, and where they ought to look for it. And I can assure them that if they will only take the trouble to see what there is to be seen, they will find fresh objects of interest as often as they go down upon the beach, and that a sea-side holiday will prove ten times as delightful as ever they found it before.

THEODORE WOOD.

THE SEA-SHORE

CHAPTER I
FISHES

PLATE I
THE GOBIES (1 and 2)

IN this little book I want to talk to you about some of the strange and wonderful creatures which you may find when you go to stay by the sea-side. And first of all I should like to tell you something about the fishes. A great many of these, of course, live in the deep water, where you cannot catch them, or even see them. But there are a good many others which you can find very easily indeed. All that you have to do is to wait until the tide has gone out, and then to go down and look into the pools which are left among the rocks. There you are almost sure to see a number of shadowy forms darting to and fro through the water. Some of these, most likely, will be shrimps and prawns, which are always very common in the rock-pools; but the others will be tiny fishes. And even if you have not got a net you can often catch them quite easily. Just bale out the water with a small pail, or even with your hands, until the pool is nearly empty, and you will be able to seize them with your fingers.

Among the fishes which can be caught in this manner are several kinds of Gobies. You can easily tell them from all other fishes by the curious way in which their lower fins are made. These fins are placed close together, so as to form a kind of cup-shaped sucker or soft pad, by means of which the little creatures can cling so firmly to the rocks that even a wave will not wash them from their hold. And if you take them home alive and put them into a basin full of sea-water, they will cling to the sides and stare at you in a most inquisitive way! Owing to this habit the gobies are often called “rock-fishes.”

The commonest of these odd little creatures, perhaps, is the Black Goby. But the Spotted Goby is very nearly as plentiful. It is rather hard to see, because it is coloured just like the sand at the bottom of the pool, on which it is very fond of resting. But if you scoop out the water from a shallow pool you will often find, not only the goby, but its nest as well. For this little fish makes a most curious nest in which to place its eggs. First of all it hunts about till it has found half an empty cockle-shell, lying at the bottom of the water with its hollow side downwards. It then scoops out the sand from underneath it, so as to form a little chamber about as big as a marble. You would think that the walls of this chamber would very soon fall in, wouldn’t you? But the fish smears them all over with a kind of slime, which very soon sets and becomes quite hard, just like cement. It then makes a tunnel leading into the chamber by means of which it can go in and out; and last of all it covers the cockle-shell all over with loose sand. So unless you look very carefully at the bottom of the pool you will not see the nest at all. But if you notice a kind of lump in the sand, and find that half a cockle-shell is buried underneath it, you may be pretty well sure that you have discovered the home of a spotted goby.

This nest is always made by the male fish, and when it is quite finished his mate comes and lays her eggs in it. Then for eight or nine days he remains on guard outside the entrance, so as to prevent any hungry creature from finding its way in and devouring them. At the end of that time the eggs hatch, and a number of baby gobies make their appearance; and although they are so small that one can hardly see them, the father-fish seems to think that they are quite able to take care of themselves. So he swims away, and leaves them to their fate.

If you catch these little fishes with your fingers you must be careful how you handle them, for they have rather long and sharp teeth, and can give quite a smart bite.

PLATE II
THE SMOOTH BLENNY (1)

This fish, which is sometimes known as the Shanny, is also very common in the rock-pools. But you are not likely to see it unless you bale out all the water from a pool, for it always hides during the daytime in the crannies among the rocks, or underneath sea-weeds. Or it will even burrow down into the sandy mud beneath a big stone, so that you will not find it at all unless you dig for it.

When it is fully grown this fish is about five inches long, and it is quite a remarkable creature in several different ways.

In the first place, it varies a great deal in colour. Sometimes it is partly green and partly yellow, sometimes it is olive brown nearly all over, and sometimes it is almost black. But you can always tell it by the ring of bright crimson which surrounds each eye.

In the second place, it can remain for quite a long time out of the water. Some fishes die almost at once if they are taken out of the sea. But a blenny can live on dry land for twenty-four hours at least. The reason is that its gills are made in such a way that they remain damp for a long while after the fish leaves the water; and as long as the gills are moist it is able to breathe.

[Plate II]

1. THE SMOOTH BLENNY.2. THE SPOTTED GUNNELL.

So very often indeed a smooth blenny will hide in a crevice which is left quite dry when the tide begins to fall, and will stay there till it rises again, perhaps eight or ten hours later.

But the oddest thing about this little fish is that it can move one of its eyes about without moving the other! Have you ever seen a chameleon? If so, you must have noticed how it will turn one of its curious eyes, first in one direction, and then in another, while the other eye remains quite still. And the blenny can move its eyes in just the same way, so that very often when one of them is looking out in front the other will be looking out behind. And then one will twist round and look upwards, while the other twists round and looks down!

If you succeed in catching a smooth blenny, you can always tell it from the other fishes which live in the rock-pools by the deep notch in the middle of the fin which runs along its back.

PLATE II
THE SPOTTED GUNNELL (2)

Another small fish which is very common in the rock-pools is the Spotted Gunnell. It is often known as the “butter-fish,” and if you try to catch it you will very quickly learn the reason why; for it will slip between your fingers just as if it had been smeared all over with butter. Nearly all fishes are slippery, but the spotted gunnell is the most slippery of all, for its whole body is covered with such a thick coat of greasy slime that it is really hardly possible to hold it.

Sometimes the spotted gunnell is light brown in colour, and sometimes it is dark brown. But you can always tell it by its shape, which is very much like that of an eel, for its body is long and flat, and is of almost the same width the whole way along, from the head to nearly the tip of the tail. Then instead of having two fins on its back quite separate from one another, as most fishes have, the spotted gunnell has one very narrow fin which runs the whole length of the body. So, you see, it is very much like an eel indeed. But you can always tell it by the row of black spots, bordered with white, on the lower edge of the back-fin. When fully grown it is about six inches long.

PLATE III
THE DRAGONET (1)

You will not find this little fish in the rock-pools nearly so often as the gobies and the gunnells, for it generally lives at the bottom of the sea at some little distance from the shore. But now and then it comes swimming up as the tide rises, and gets left behind as it falls again, so that for a few hours, at any rate, it is obliged to stay in the pools. It is a most beautiful little creature, and, strange to say, the male is much more handsome than the female, for he is golden yellow above and white beneath, with streaks and spots of lilac upon his back and sides, while his mate is reddish-yellow all over. Besides this, he has the front spine of his first back-fin drawn out to such a length that it reaches almost to the tip of his tail, while all his other fins are very long and very spiny. He really does look, indeed, very much like a tiny water-dragon. That is the reason, of course, why he is called the “dragonet.” The female, however, has much smaller fins. Indeed, she is so very unlike the male that until a few years ago even naturalists thought that she was a different fish altogether, and she was generally known as the Fox, on account of her reddish colour.

[Plate III]

1. THE DRAGONET.2. THE PIPE-FISH.

If you ever succeed in finding a dragonet in the rock-pools it is almost sure to be a female, for the male hardly ever comes into shallow water.

PLATE III
THE PIPE-FISH (2)

This is a very odd-looking fish indeed—quite the most curious of all the fishes which live in the rock-pools. And as it is very common, you ought to be able to find it without any difficulty.

In the first place, although it grows to a length of eighteen or nineteen inches, its body, even in the largest part, is no bigger round than a slate-pencil. For this reason it is often known as the Needle Fish.

Besides this, its jaws are drawn out to a most wonderful length, and are fastened together all the way along, so that they really form a kind of tube. So, you see, a pipe-fish can never open or shut its mouth, but has to suck in its food through the tiny hole at the tip of the jaws.

Sometimes, as you look down into a rock-pool, you may see one of these fishes feeding; and the way in which it does so is very curious indeed. It suspends itself almost upright in the water, with its tail upwards and its head downwards. It then fills its tube-like mouth with water, which it squirts out again as hard as it possibly can. The result is, of course, that the sand at the bottom of the pool is blown away, and the various tiny creatures which were lying hidden underneath it are uncovered. Then the fish sucks them up into its mouth, and swallows them.

Another curious fact about the pipe-fish is that instead of being clothed with scales, as most fishes are, it is covered all over with hard bony plates, just like a suit of armour. But the strangest thing of all about it is that underneath the body of the male fish is a kind of pouch, into which the female puts her eggs, so that he can carry them about in safety until they hatch! Isn’t that odd? And it is even said that after the little fishes are hatched they will go back into their father’s pouch if they are frightened, just as baby kangaroos do into that of their mother, and remain there until the danger has passed away!

PLATE IV
THE FLOUNDER

This is one of the “flat fishes,” as everybody calls them, like the turbot and the sole. Yet, really and truly, these creatures are not flat at all. They are thin. For what we always call the back of a sole is not really its back. It is one of its sides. And what we always call its lower surface is not its lower surface, but its other side!

This sounds very strange, doesn’t it? But the fact is that when these so-called “flat” fishes are first hatched they swim upright, just as all other fishes do. Then their backs are upwards, of course, and their lower surfaces are downwards, and one of their sides is on either side. For about a month they swim about in this way. At the end of that time a strong desire comes over them to go and lie down on the sand or mud at the bottom of the sea. Now, in order to do this, of course, they have to lie upon their sides. Then three very strange things happen.

In the first place, their colour changes. Until now, both sides of the body have been pearly or silvery white. A white fish, however, lying on yellow sand or brown mud, would be very easily seen, and some hungry creature would be sure to catch sight of it and devour it. So as soon as the little fish lies down the upper side begins to get darker, and in a very short time it is of just the same colour as the sand or mud all round it. If you look into a shallow pool in which some of these fishes are lying you will find it very difficult indeed to see them, for they look exactly like the surface on which they rest.

In the second place, their way of swimming changes. When they first hatch out from the egg these little fishes swim just as other fishes do—upright, by means of their tails. For of course you know that fishes do not swim with their fins, which merely help them to keep their balance in the water. But when they lie down at the bottom of the sea they give up this way of swimming, and wriggle their way, as it were, through the water, still lying upon one side.

[Plate IV]

THE FLOUNDER.

But the oddest change of all takes place in the position of the eyes. You can easily see, of course, that if a fish with its eyes in the usual place lies down on one side at the bottom of the sea, one eye is underneath its head, and is quite useless. So you might think that, except when it was swimming, it would only be able to see with one of its eyes. But a very strange thing indeed happens as soon as it lies down on the mud. The lower eye actually begins to move, and slowly travels round the head, till at last it settles down by the side of the other! That sounds impossible, doesn’t it? It is as wonderful as anything in a fairy story. Yet in every one of these so-called “flat” fishes that strange journey of the eye takes place.

Next time you pass by a fishmonger’s shop just look at the soles or the flounders in his window, and you will see that in every one of these fishes the two eyes are quite close together, above the same corner of the mouth. That is because one of the eyes moved right across the head while the fish was quite small, so that it might be able to use them both as it lay at the bottom of the sea.

You can sometimes catch flounders by paddling in the sea in places where the bottom is rather muddy. After a little while you are almost sure to feel one of these fishes wriggling underneath your feet, and all that you have to do is to stoop down and seize it.

PLATE V
THE PLAICE

In its habits the plaice is very much like the flounder, except that it does not like lying upon mud, and always chooses a spot where the bottom of the sea is sandy. And the skin of the upper side of its body, instead of growing dark brown, like the colour of mud, becomes speckled and spotted like the surface of sand. The fish is always very careful indeed to conceal itself, for even when the sea-bottom is sandy it does not lie upon the surface, but wriggles its way right down into the sand, only leaving just its eyes and a small part of its head above it.

You can always tell a plaice when you see it by the bright reddish-yellow spots upon the upper side of its body and its fins. And besides these, it always has a row of little bony knobs on the upper side of its head. You can catch it just as you can catch flounders, by paddling in the sea. But the plaice which are caught in this way are always quite small ones, for the bigger fish, which sometimes weigh as much as twelve or even fifteen pounds, live in the deeper water at some little distance from the shore.

PLATE VI
THE EGG OF THE SKATE (1)

Very often indeed, as you walk along the sea-shore, you will find a curious object which the fishermen generally call a “mermaid’s purse.” It is about three inches long and two inches wide, and is made of a black, horny substance, so tough and hard that it is very difficult indeed to tear it. And from each corner there projects a slender tube, about an inch in length. In fact it looks rather like a hand-barrow, with handles in front as well as at the back, instead of wheels.

[Plate V]

THE PLAICE.

This is an egg of that very curious fish which we call the Skate, and which looks something like one of the “flat” fishes with a long whip-like tail. So it is sometimes called a “skate-barrow.” When it is flung up on the beach by the waves the egg is nearly always empty. But if you happen to be staying by the sea-side in the early spring, and go down for a walk along the beach after a violent storm, you may perhaps find one of these eggs with a baby skate inside it. And if you examine the egg very carefully, you will find that while one end is firmly closed up, the other end has a slit running right across it, and that this slit is made in such a way that it allows the little fish to pass out quite easily when the proper time comes, but quite prevents any other creature from coming in.

PLATE VI
THE EGG OF THE DOG-FISH (2)

On some parts of the coast you may often find an empty egg which is very much like that of the skate, for it is made of just the same horny material, and is of just the same shape. But at the four corners, instead of having straight projections like the handles of a barrow, it has long, twisted tendrils, just like those of a vine.

This is the egg of the Dog-fish, which is really a kind of small shark. It is not big or strong enough to be dangerous to human beings; but it is a terrible enemy to such small fishes as pilchards and herrings. For a number of these creatures form themselves into a band and go hunting together, just like a pack of wild dogs. And they will follow the shoal about day after day, snapping up the poor helpless fishes in hundreds and thousands.

When a dog-fish lays its eggs, it seems to fasten them down by their tendrils to the weeds which are growing at the bottom of the sea; and these hold them so firmly that unless the weeds are torn up with them, they never break away. At each end of the egg is a small hole, allowing a current of water to pass over the little fish inside it. And at one end there is a slit, just like that in the egg of the skate, which can only be pushed open from the inside. So the little dog-fish can get out, while its enemies cannot get in.

[Plate VI]

1. THE EGG OF SKATE.2. THE EGG OF DOG-FISH.

Very often, after a violent storm, you may find a dead dog-fish lying upon the shore; and even if you have never seen one of these creatures before you can tell at once what it is, because its skin is so rough that it feels exactly like a piece of sand-paper. So this skin is often used for covering the handles of swords, in order to give a firm grip; and sometimes narrow strips of it are fastened to the sides of boxes of lucifer matches.

CHAPTER II
THE MOLLUSCS

PLATE VII
THE CUTTLE (1 and 2)

WE now come to the Molluscs, or Soft-bodied Animals, of which there are a very great many. Some of them live in shells, like the oyster and the whelk, and are often spoken of as “shell-fishes.” But they are not really fishes at all, for they have no bones as fishes have, and are made in quite a different way. And there are just a few of them which have no shells at all.

One of these is that very curious creature which we call the Cuttle. You may sometimes find it in the rock-pools, lurking in the crevices among the rocks, or hiding under the masses of sea-weeds which grow round the edges. It has a soft, white, bag-like body, and a big head, on which are two great staring black eyes. Just above these eyes eight long slender arms spring out; for cuttles keep their arms on their heads instead of on their bodies! And another arm which is even longer still, and is flattened out at the end into a kind of oval plate, hangs down on either side.

All these arms are set with rows of round suckers, which are so strong that if even a small cuttle catches hold of you, it will not be very easy to make him let go. So if you do happen to find a cuttle in a rock-pool it will be better to watch him in the water, without attempting to catch him.

Down in the middle of all these branching arms, just where they spring from the head, are two very curious organs. The first of these is the beak, which is very strong, very sharp, and a good deal hooked. In fact, it is rather like that of a parrot. The other consists of two tubes which run downwards into the head, lying side by side together like the barrels of a double-barrelled gun.

These tubes are called the “siphon,” and they are used for three purposes.

First of all, they are used for breathing. The cuttle breathes water by means of gills, like those of fishes, which lie inside the head; and the water passes down to them through one of the siphon tubes, and then goes out again through the other.

Next, they are used for swimming. When a cuttle wants to swim it gathers all its arms together in front of its head, fills both its siphon tubes with water, and then squirts their contents out again as hard as it can. The result is that two jets of water come rushing out of its head with such force that the surrounding water cannot give way fast enough before them. So they push the cuttle backwards so swiftly that if it were to dart across the pool you would hardly be able to follow its movements.

The third use of the siphon tubes is a very strange one indeed. Sometimes while you are looking at a cuttle in a rock-pool, the water all round it will suddenly become quite dark, just as if a quantity of ink had been poured into the pool. And so it has; for inside its body the cuttle has a bag which contains a quantity of a deep black liquid called “sepia.” This bag is surrounded by powerful muscles, and opens into the siphon tubes; so that when the animal contracts the muscles, the sepia is squirted out into the pool. It always does this if it is frightened; and under cover of the darkened water it nearly always succeeds in making its escape.

Inside its body the cuttle also has a very curious object which is generally called a “cuttle-bone.” It is not really a bone, however, but is made of almost pure chalk, and seems to act as a kind of support for the bodily organs.

[Plate VII]

1. THE CUTTLE.2. THE EGGS OF CUTTLE.

Another very odd thing about the cuttle is the way in which it lays its eggs. These look just like purple grapes, and each has a small stalk, by means of which they are fastened together in bunches. Indeed, the fishermen always call them “sea-grapes.” You may often find them lying about upon the beach in early spring, and if you open one of them carefully, you will find a little baby cuttle inside it.

PLATE VIII
THE WHELK (1 and 2)

Everybody knows the shells of whelks by sight, and you can hardly take a walk along the sea-shore without seeing hundreds of them lying about on the beach. And great numbers of whelks are caught for human food, and also to serve as bait for fishes.

One very curious thing about whelks is the way in which they lay their eggs. Very often indeed, as you walk along the sandy sea-shore, you will notice round clusters of yellowish white eggs, which often go rolling along before the wind. Each of these clusters is about as big as a cricket-ball, and the eggs of which it is made up are about as large as peas. Now these are the eggs of whelks, and I think that every one who sees them must wonder how these creatures can possibly manage to lay such very big balls of eggs. For each egg-ball is at least two or three times as big as the biggest whelk.

But, after all, the explanation is quite a simple one. When the eggs are first laid they are very small indeed. Each is no bigger than a tiny pin’s head. Instead of having shells, however, these eggs have tough but very elastic skins; and these skins are made in such a way that while they allow water to soak in from the outside, they will not allow it to pass out again. So as soon as the eggs are dropped into the sea they begin to swell; and the result is that before very long each egg is as big as a good-sized pea.

If you pick up a cluster of these curious eggs in the early spring and open them, you will find inside each the shell of a very tiny whelk, which is almost ready to hatch out.

PLATE IX
THE DOG WHELK (1)

If you look in the ridges of small pebbles and bits of broken coal which you will meet with here and there on the sandy parts of the sea-shore, you are quite sure to find a number of very small whelk shells. They are brownish yellow outside, and pinkish white inside, and instead of being quite smooth, like those of the common whelk, they are covered with a number of ribs which run down from the peak to the margin. And these ribs are broken up in such a way that they look almost like rows of beads.

[Plate VIII]

1. THE WHELK.2. THE EGGS OF WHELK.

These are the shells of the Dog Whelk, and if you wait until the tide is quite low, and then hunt about on the weed-covered rocks close to the edge of the sea, you will very likely find some of the living animals crawling about. They feed upon the sea-weeds by means of a curious organ called the tooth-ribbon. This is just a narrow strip of gristle, set with row upon row of very tiny hooked teeth; and by drawing this backwards and forwards over the leaves of the weeds the animal scrapes off very tiny pieces, which it then swallows.

In the tooth-ribbon of one of these whelks there are about a hundred rows of teeth, with about nine teeth in each row: so that the animal has nearly a thousand teeth altogether. But of course you can only see them by means of a powerful microscope.

PLATE IX
THE STING WINKLE (2)

Although this creature is called a “winkle” it is really one of the whelks. It is very common, and you may often find its empty shell lying upon the shore. It is white, or yellowish white, in colour, and is generally about an inch and a half in length, with several high ridges running down it from the top to the bottom, and a number of smaller ridges running crosswise between them.

You would not think that this could be a very dangerous creature, would you? It looks as harmless as it can possibly be, and certainly you need not be in the least afraid to pick up a sting winkle if you find one crawling about, for it cannot injure human beings. But to other shell-bearing molluscs it is a very terrible foe indeed. I dare say that you have often noticed, when you have been picking up shells on the sea-shore, that a good many of those shells had small round holes bored through them. Well, those holes were pierced by a sting winkle. For this animal is a creature of prey, and feeds entirely on other animals which live in shells; and when it meets with one it fastens itself to its victim’s shell, and drills a hole right through it by means of its tooth-ribbon. It then pokes the tooth-ribbon through the hole into the body of the animal inside, and draws it back again. As it does so, of course, the sharp hooked teeth drag away little bits of the animal’s flesh, which the sting winkle swallows. It then pokes its tooth-ribbon down again into the body of the victim, and so on, over and over again, until its hunger is satisfied.

PLATE IX
THE PERIWINKLE (3 and 4)

Of course you know the Periwinkle very well indeed by sight—and very likely by taste, too! So there is no need for me to describe it. But perhaps you did not know that there are two different kinds of periwinkles. One of these is the Common Periwinkle, which is very plentiful indeed on many parts of the coast. You may find it in thousands and thousands if you hunt about on the weed-covered rocks near the water’s edge when the tide is out, and no matter how many of them are caught, there always seem to be just as many again next day. This is the periwinkle which is used for food.

The other is the Dog Periwinkle. It is rather larger, and has a stouter shell. If you want to find it, you must look on the rocks about half-way between high and low water-marks, and there you will generally find it crawling about in numbers. But it is not good for food, because it often has a quantity of eggs inside its body, and inside these eggs the shells of the baby periwinkles are already formed, which make it dreadfully gritty. Thrushes, however, as well as a good many of the shore birds, do not mind this in the least, and they devour so many of both these kinds of periwinkles that it is quite a wonder that any are left alive.

PLATE IX
THE PURPURA (5)

In size and shape this very common creature is rather like the dog periwinkle. But its shell is white in colour instead of bluish black, and generally has two or three bands of light yellowish brown running round it. You may often find it crawling about on the weed-covered rocks when the tide is out.

[Plate IX]

1. THE DOG WHELK.2. THE STING WINKLE.
3. THE PERIWINKLE.4. THE DOG PERIWINKLE.
5. THE PURPURA.

The purpura is quite a famous creature, because of the use which was made of it by the ancient Romans. I dare say you know that in days of old the colour of purple was very highly valued; and among the Romans only members of the royal family were allowed to dress in purple garments. Now this purple dye was obtained from the purpura. Inside its body this creature has a little bag which contains about a drop of a thick white liquid, rather like milk. Certainly it does not look in the least like purple dye. But if you were to squeeze it out on to a sheet of white paper, and to place it in the sunshine, you would very soon see that it was changing colour. In a few minutes’ time it would have turned to yellow. After a little time longer you would notice a blue tinge creeping into the yellow, and turning it to green; and by degrees the blue would become stronger and stronger, till the green disappeared. At last a crimson tinge would creep into the blue and turn it to purple; and this would be exactly the same as the famous purple dye which the ancient Romans valued so highly.

The eggs which are laid by the purpura are very curious indeed, for they are fastened down to stones by little stalks; so that each one looks rather like an egg-cup with an egg inside it. And inside each of these eggs are several little purpuras instead of only one.

PLATE X
THE SEA SNAIL (1)

This is one of the very commonest of all the shell-bearing molluscs. You may find it crawling about in numbers all over the weed-covered rocks which are left bare as the tide goes down. Its shell varies very much in colour, for it is sometimes bright yellow, and sometimes pale yellow, and sometimes olive green, and sometimes brown, and sometimes almost black. Indeed, you might almost think that there were half-a-dozen different kinds of these sea snails instead of only one.

These creatures have tooth-ribbons set with hundreds of tiny hooked teeth, just like those of the dog whelks, and they use them in feeding upon the leaves of sea-weeds in just the same way.

PLATE X
THE WENTLETRAP (2)

The Wentletrap is one of the most beautiful of all the shells which are to be found upon the shore. Indeed, I really think that it is quite the most beautiful. For the high ridges which stand out so boldly run round and round it in the most graceful curves, and the whole shell looks just as if it had been carved out of ivory.

[Plate X]

1. THE SEA SNAIL.2. THE WENTLETRAP.

The wentletrap is sometimes known as the “staircase shell,” because the ridges which run round it are very much like those spiral staircases by which one climbs to the tops of church towers and other lofty buildings. If you want to find it, the best place to look is in the ridges of small pebbles which are washed up here and there on sandy coasts by the waves, and which are generally mixed up with broken coal which has been thrown out from passing ships. But it is not very common, and you must not be disappointed if you do not succeed in finding it.

PLATE XI
THE COMMON LIMPET (1)

This is a very common creature indeed, and you can find it in hundreds and thousands on any rocky part of the coast. Numbers of its empty shells are to be found lying about on the beach, and if you go down among the rocks when the tide is out you will often notice that in some places they are so covered with limpets that you can scarcely put the tip of your finger in between them.

These animals cling to the rocks in the most wonderful way. Indeed, if you take hold of a big limpet between your fingers you will not be able to move it in the least, even if you pull at it and push at it as hard as you can. But if you take the animal by surprise, and give it a sharp, sudden blow sideways with a stone, or the end of a stout stick, you can generally knock it off quite easily. And you will very often find that a deep ring-shaped mark has been worn away in the rock by the sharp edges of its shell.

However, limpets do not always remain clinging to the rocks, for they can crawl about quite as easily as snails can, by means of that soft, fleshy part of the body which we call the “foot.” And if you take them home alive, and put them into an aquarium, you may often see them creeping up and down the glass sides, through which you can examine their bodies quite easily.

PLATE XI
THE KEY-HOLE LIMPET (2)

There are a good many different kinds of limpets, of which one of the most curious is the Key-hole Limpet. It is generally found in rather deep water, but you may sometimes find it clinging to the rocks just above low-water mark. You must choose a season of “spring-tide,” however, for then the tide goes farther out than usual, and leaves behind it a good many creatures which at other times one hardly ever sees.

The shell of this creature is rather stouter than that of the common limpet, and has a number of ridges running down it from the peak to the margin. Even by these you can tell it at once. But if you look at it closely, you will also find that just at the top of the peak there is a hole shaped rather like a key-hole. Through this hole the animal squirts out the water which has passed over its gills; so that all the time that it is breathing, if only one could see it, a kind of little fountain is playing under water, spouting out from the top of its shell!

PLATE XI
THE SMOOTH LIMPET (3)

At first sight, perhaps, you would hardly take this creature for a limpet at all, for it is ever so much smaller than either the common or the key-hole limpets, and has a very thin and delicate shell indeed. It varies a good deal in colour, but generally the shell is pale brown, looking almost like polished horn, with eight or nine narrow streaks of bright blue running down from the peak to the margin. It is often called the “bonnet shell,” because in shape it is rather like an old-fashioned bonnet.

You may often find the empty shells of this creature lying upon the shore. But if you take them home you will find that as soon as they become dry the beautiful blue streaks begin to fade, and that after a few days you can hardly see them at all.

PLATE XI
THE CUP AND SAUCER LIMPET (4)

This is a very curious creature indeed. But if you want to see why its rather odd name was given to it, you must look inside its shell instead of outside. Then you will see that in the upper part is a curved plate which really looks very much like a tiny tea-cup, while the shell itself surrounds it just like a saucer. And if you were to examine the animal which lives inside it very carefully, and to pull out its long tooth-ribbon, you would find at the tip of it a curious little organ which looks just like a tea-spoon. So that we have cup, saucer, and spoon all in one!

Perhaps you may wonder what the odd little cup is for. Well, the fact is that the muscles by means of which the animal clings to the rock are very strong indeed. So, of course, there must be something else very strong to which they can be fastened, and this cup-shaped plate gives them a very firm hold.

The cup and saucer limpet is not a very common creature, and in many parts of the coast it is never met with at all. But if you stay by the sea-side on the south coast of England, you may sometimes find its empty shell lying upon the shore.

[Plate XI]

1. THE LIMPET.2. THE KEY-HOLE LIMPET.
3. THE SMOOTH LIMPET.4. THE CUP AND SAUCER LIMPET.

PLATE XII
THE PAINTED TOP (1)

Tops are generally very common indeed on the sandy parts of the shore. You cannot possibly mistake their shells for those of any other creatures, for they are cone-shaped, looking very much like rather flattened sugar-loaves, and are generally very beautifully coloured. So pretty are they, indeed, that they are sometimes strung together and worn as necklaces, or used for ornamenting ladies’ dresses.

The painted top is one of the most beautiful of all these shells, for it is covered all over with spots and streaks and blotches of scarlet, and crimson, and pink, and purple, and white, and blue, and yellow! But all this lovely colouring is only on the outer coat of the shell, which is very easily chipped off. The consequence is that these shells are very often damaged by being tossed to and fro by the waves, and though you may often find twenty or thirty in the course of a morning, not more than two or three, perhaps, will be quite uninjured.

Tops are very useful creatures to have alive in an aquarium, for they keep the glass sides clean from the tiny green weeds which so quickly grow upon them. They do this by means of their tooth-ribbons, and you may see them crawling about on the glass walls and mowing down the weeds, just as a gardener cuts the grass on the lawn with his scythe.

PLATE XII
THE GREY TOP (2)

The painted top is rather a large shell, for it is often nearly an inch in height from the peak to the margin. But the Grey Top, which is even commoner still, is a good deal smaller. It is not nearly so brightly tinted as the painted top, for it is yellowish grey in colour, with zigzag black streaks running round and round it, which give it rather a mottled look. Still, it is a very pretty shell indeed.

If you look at a top shell from underneath, you will always find that there is a small hole in the bottom. This is the entrance to a passage which runs right up into the peak of the shell. In the grey top this hole is just about big enough to admit a rather fine needle.

PLATE XII
THE COWRY (3)

No doubt you have often found this very pretty shell, for on the sandy parts of our coasts it is sometimes very common. You may often find twenty or thirty cowries, indeed, in one of those ridges of pebbles and small coal which are washed up by every tide. But if you were to see the living animals crawling about I do not think that you would ever guess what they were, for their soft bodies come outside their shells, which they cover up so completely that you can hardly see them at all.

If you look on the upper part of the shell, you will see that a pale streak runs across it from one side to the other. This streak marks the line where the edges of the two sides of the body almost meet.

In some parts of the world cowry shells are used instead of money. It seems rather an easy way of getting rich, doesn’t it, just to go and pick up shells on the sea-shore? But then fifteen hundred of these cowries are only worth about a shilling, so that you would have to pick up a very great many even if you only wanted to do a day’s shopping! And then they are ever so much bigger than our English cowries, so that it would not be very easy to carry them about. You would have to take several sacks full of cowries with you when you went to make a purchase, instead of just keeping your money in a purse!

PLATE XII
THE CHITON (4)

The chiton is one of the oddest of all the shell-bearing molluscs; for it does not look like a mollusc at all. It looks much more like a kind of sea woodlouse, or a very tiny armadillo. For instead of having a single shell like a whelk or a periwinkle, or a double one like a cockle or an oyster, it has eight shelly plates on its back which overlap one another, just like the tiles on the roof of a house. And if you touch it, it will often roll itself up into a kind of ball, just like the pill-millepedes, or “monkey-peas,” which are so common in our gardens.

[Plate XII]

1. THE PAINTED TOP.2. THE GREY TOP.
3. THE COWRY.4. THE CHITON.

This creature is called the Chiton, and if you want to find it you must go and look on the piles at the end of a pier, or on the rocks which are left bare at very low tides. There you will often find it in hundreds. Generally it is ashy grey in colour, but it varies a good deal in hue, and you will sometimes find examples which are streaked and mottled with pink, and orange, and white, and lilac, and chocolate brown.

Before a chiton reaches its perfect form it passes through a kind of caterpillar stage, and then turns into a sort of chrysalis, just as an insect does. And both the caterpillar and the chrysalis, strange to say, have eyes upon their heads, while the perfect chiton has none. But some chitons have eyes all over their shells instead, and in some of these very odd creatures between eleven and twelve thousand eyes have been counted, the shells being almost entirely covered with them; so that the animals may really be said to see with their whole bodies!

CHAPTER III
BIVALVE MOLLUSCS

PLATE XIII
THE OYSTER (1)

THE “bivalve” molluscs are so called because they live in shells made of two parts, or “valves,” which are fastened together by means of a hinge. There are a great many of these, and the Oyster is one of the best known of them all.

This creature is only found in places where the bottom of the sea is muddy, because in sandy places the sand is very apt to get into the hinges of the shells and to prevent them from being closed; and in that case the animal very soon dies from suffocation. So oysters are generally found in the mouths of rivers, or in land-locked bays where there is no sand at all.

The history of these creatures is a very curious one indeed.

In the month of May the mother oyster produces a very large number of eggs—sometimes as many as eight or nine hundred thousand! These are called “oyster spat,” and for several weeks she keeps them in her gills. Then one day she suddenly opens her valves and squirts them out into the water, where they look like a little cloud of the finest possible dust. For a short time after these eggs hatch the baby oysters swim about, and travel backwards and forwards as the tide rises and falls. After a while, however, they sink down and fasten themselves to some object at the bottom of the sea; and when once they have done this they never move again. They always lie upon their left sides, with the smaller and flatter of the two valves uppermost; and there they remain for five years at least before they reach their full size.

Oysters feed, too, in a very odd way. You know, perhaps, that inside the shell of an oyster there is a tufted organ which we call the “beard.” This consists of the gills. Hidden away underneath these is the mouth; and the gills do not merely suck out the air which has been dissolved in the water, as those of other animals do, but sift out every little tiny scrap of decaying matter which the oyster can use for food as well. So an oyster’s gills enable it to breathe and to catch its dinner at the same time!

PLATE XIII
THE SADDLE OYSTER (2)

This is a very curious oyster; for in its flat lower valve, just below the hinge, is a large oval hole. Through this hole passes a strong band of muscle, to which is fastened a kind of shelly knob which looks just like a button. By means of this the animal fastens itself down to some object at the bottom of the sea; and very often indeed it is found attached to the shells of other molluscs, looking something like the saddle on the back of a horse. That is why it is called the “saddle oyster.”

Another curious fact about this creature is that very often its shape completely alters as it grows older. While it is quite small it looks very much like an ordinary oyster. But as time goes on it generally takes the form of the object on which it rests. So you might easily find half-a-dozen shells of the saddle oyster, not one of which would be shaped like any of the others.

[Plate XIII]

1. THE OYSTER.2. THE SADDLE OYSTER.
3. THE COCKLE.

PLATE XIII
THE COCKLE (3)

This is one of the very commonest of all the creatures of the sea-shore, and you may find its heart-shaped shells lying about on the beach in hundreds and thousands. In many places, indeed, cockle-shells are found in such wonderful numbers that they are crushed up and used for covering pathways instead of gravel.

Yet you may wander about on the shore day after day for weeks together and never see a living cockle. How is this?

Well, the reason is that cockles live buried underneath the sand. If you go down near the edge of the waves when the tide is quite low, and just stand still for a minute or two and watch, you are almost sure to see first one little jet of water, and then another, and then another, come squirting up out of the sand into the air. Now these little jets of water are thrown up by cockles which are lying buried in the wet sandy mud below. For every now and then these creatures draw down a little water into their gills, through one of their siphon tubes, and when they have sucked all the air out of it they squirt it up again through the other.

Would you like to dig one of them up and look at it? Well, just take a wooden spade and try. You will find that you cannot do it, for the cockle can dig a good deal faster than you can. The fact is that he has a very strong, fleshy organ which we call the “foot,” and with this he can burrow down into the sandy mud so quickly that by the time you have dug to a depth of six inches, he will have gone down to the depth of ten or twelve.

The cockle uses this “foot” for another purpose as well, for he can jump with it. And if you did succeed in digging him out of the ground, you would very likely see him skipping about in the most active way, almost like a sandhopper!

Upon some parts of the coast another kind of cockle is found, which has its “foot” of a bright red colour. For this reason it is generally known as the “red-nosed cockle.”

PLATE XIV
THE MUSSEL (1 and 2)

Mussels are almost, if not quite, as plentiful as cockles. If you walk down underneath a pier or a jetty when the tide is out, you will often find that the pillars which support it are covered with great clusters of these creatures; and very often the rocks which are left dry at low-water are covered with them in just the same way. They fasten themselves down by means of a bundle of very strong threads, which we call the “byssus”; and these hold so firmly, that although the waves may beat upon a bed of mussels day after day all through the year, they never succeed in tearing them away.

Near the town of Bideford in Devonshire, indeed, there is a bridge which is only kept standing by means of mussels. This bridge, which is a very long one, with twenty-four arches, runs across the Towridge River, close to the place where it joins the Taw; and the tide runs so rapidly that if mortar is used to repair the bridge it is very soon washed away. So boat-loads of mussels are brought to the bridge from time to time, and these anchor themselves down so firmly by means of their byssus threads that they actually hold the stone-work together!

Sometimes, however, mussels do a great deal of harm, for they will get into an oyster-bed and fasten themselves down upon the shells of the oysters. Their byssus threads then form a kind of thick mat, which collects and holds the mud that is brought up by the tide every time that it rises; and this very soon covers the oysters entirely up, and smothers them to death.

Mussels do not remain fastened down in one place for the whole of their lives, however, as oysters do. They can crawl about quite easily whenever they like. And they do this, also, by means of their byssus threads. First they move a few of these threads forward, and take a fresh hold with them; then they draw the rest up after them; and then they move the front ones forward once more, and so on over and over again.

Mussels are very largely used for food, and also as bait for deep-sea fishing. In the Firth of Forth alone, indeed, nearly forty millions of these creatures are collected every year for this latter purpose alone, or one for every man, woman, and child in England and Scotland and Wales!

PLATE XIV
THE HORSE MUSSEL (3)

This is not a very handsome creature, for its shell is covered all over with a rather thick brown skin, which is very much wrinkled. It is quite common in many places, and yet one does not very often see it; for it is nearly always hidden underneath its byssus threads, which grow in thick masses. Besides this, it often burrows underneath the surface of the sand; so that unless you know just where to look for it, and how to look for it, you are not likely to find it.

[Plate XIV]

1. INSIDE OF MUSSEL SHELL.2. THE MUSSEL.
3. THE HORSE MUSSEL.

But if you go down to the pools at the very edge of the water when the tide is quite low, and scrape away the sand which is heaped up against the bottom of the rocks, you may very likely come upon quite a large cluster of these curious creatures.

Horse mussels are not used for food as common mussels are, because they have a very strong and unpleasant taste.

PLATE XV
THE VARIABLE SCALLOP (1)

A good many different kinds of scallops are found on our shores. One of them—the Common Scallop—is as large as the palm of a man’s hand, and is used for food. You may often see it in fishmongers’ shops. But you are not at all likely to find its empty shells lying on the shore, for it lives in rather deep water. You may find those of the Variable Scallop, however, very often indeed in places where the shore is sandy. It is called the “variable” scallop because it varies so much in colour that one hardly ever sees two of its shells which are quite alike. Sometimes they are crimson, sometimes pink, sometimes mauve, sometimes dark yellow, sometimes golden yellow, and sometimes blotched and mottled with different colours. A number of ridges run down the shell from the hinge to the margin, and on each of these is a row of short spikes; so that the animal looks something like a tipsy-cake!

Scallops swim in a rather curious way, namely, by opening and shutting their valves over and over again. As often as they do this a jet of water is squirted out, and this acts on the surrounding water just like the jets which are squirted from the siphon tubes of the cuttle, and drives the animal along with some little speed. As it travels through the water it looks very pretty, for all round the edges of its shell it has a fringe of long feelers, which wave up and down in a most graceful way. By means of these it obtains its food. At the base of these feelers is a row of little black dots, which seem to be eyes.

PLATE XV
THE RADIATED SCALLOP (2)

This is rather a rare shell, and if you find it lying upon the shore you will be fortunate. You may know it at once if you do find it, for it only has six or seven ridges running down it, instead of about twice that number. It varies a good deal in colour, but is generally reddish brown, spotted and speckled with white.

[Plate XV]

1. THE VARIABLE SCALLOP.2. THE RADIATED SCALLOP.
3. THE HUNCHBACK SCALLOP.

PLATE XV
THE HUNCHBACK SCALLOP (3)

It is very easy to see why this creature is called the “hunchback,” for although when it is quite small it is shaped just like other scallops, it alters in form very much as it grows bigger; so that really it sometimes looks as if it had been crumpled up when it was quite soft, and had never recovered from the squeeze. Besides this, the two valves are not alike, as they are in other scallops, for while one is always very deep and rounded, the other is nearly flat. So when the animal is alive it really has a kind of “hunchbacked” appearance; and if you found its two valves lying apart from one another you would hardly believe that they could both have belonged to the same creature.

The colour of the hunchbacked scallop is white, mottled with brick-red.

PLATE XVI
THE SUNSET SHELL (1 and 2)

This is a very “local” shell. That is, it is very common indeed in some places, so that you might pick up hundreds and hundreds in a few minutes, while in other places it is never found at all. The best place in which to look for it is a part of the beach where sand and mud are mingled together, and there you will be almost sure to find it.

The name of “sunset” shell has been given to it because of the beautiful way in which the inside surface is coloured. Sometimes it is rosy pink all over; sometimes it is orange yellow; sometimes it has crimson streaks upon a whitish ground. But you can never look at it without being reminded of the evening sky after a very bright sunset. The outside of the shell, however, is always white and chalky-looking, and no one who saw the two valves fastened together as they are when the animal is alive would have the least idea how beautiful they really are.

This creature always lives buried in the sandy mud, just as the cockle does. It has a very powerful “foot,” by means of which it burrows, and two long and very slender siphon tubes.

PLATE XVI
THE GAPER (3)

This is another of the shell-bearing molluscs which live in burrows in the sandy mud, and it is called the “gaper” because the shells are always open at the top, just as if the animal were yawning, or gaping. Through this opening the siphon tubes project. These tubes are used in breathing, just like those of the cuttle, and are enclosed in a kind of leathery case, which the animal can stretch out or draw back at will; so that when it is lying at the bottom of its burrow it can keep the tips of the siphon tubes just above the surface of the mud, and so draw water down to its gills quite easily.

[Plate XVI]

1. INSIDE OF SUNSET SHELL.2. THE SUNSET SHELL.
3. THE GAPER.

On some parts of the coast gapers are used as food. But if you want to buy some you must not call them “gapers.” You must call them “old maids”; for by that name they are always called by the fishermen. Some of the sea-birds are very fond of them too, and dig them out of their burrows with their long beaks. And in the far North millions and millions of them are devoured by walruses, and also by Arctic foxes, which prowl about the shore in search of them every day when the tide goes down.

PLATE XVII
THE PIDDOCK (1)

Now we come to one of the most wonderful of all the creatures which live in the sea; namely, the Piddock. You can find its empty shells lying about in numbers on almost any part of the shore where the cliffs are made of chalk or limestone. And if you look at the rocks which are left dry when the tide goes down you will see the entrances to its burrows—large, oval holes, several of which you may often find quite close together. For the piddock is a boring shell, which drives its tunnels through and through the rocks, until very often they are quite honeycombed by its tunnels. Sometimes you may meet with a big block of chalk which only weighs about half as much as it should, because all the rest has been cut away by piddocks. And if you could split it open you would find several of these creatures lying in their burrows.

But how they manage to cut their way through the hard chalk, or the still harder limestone, nobody quite knows. Most likely, however, they do so partly by means of the soft part of the body which we call the “foot,” and partly by means of the shell, which they turn first a little bit to one side, and then a little bit to the other side, just like a man who is using a bradawl. Every now and then, of course, the burrow gets choked up with the material which has been scraped away. But the piddock knows quite well what to do in order to clear it. It just squirts out a jet of water from the siphon tubes, by means of which it breathes, and so washes the burrow out!

Now let me tell you why I said that the piddock is one of the most wonderful of all the creatures which live in the sea.

First of all, then, remember that the sea, acting by itself, has very little power to wash away chalk. For as soon as the waves begin to beat upon the face of a chalk cliff, they leave on it the spores, or seeds, of sea-weeds. Very soon those spores begin to grow, and before long the surface of the cliff is covered with masses of weed, so that the sea hardly touches the chalk underneath them at all. The waves might beat upon the cliffs for hundreds and hundreds of years without breaking it down.

But the piddock comes and burrows into the chalk just below high-water mark. Backwards and forwards it goes boring on, till at last only thin dividing walls are left between its tunnels. Then the sea washes in, and breaks down these walls, so that the whole foundation of the cliff is cut away. The result is, of course, that before very long there is a landslip. Hundreds of tons of chalk come tumbling down into the sea. Then the piddocks begin work again a little farther back, and by-and-by there is another landslip.

You can see the effects of the piddock’s work upon any part of the coast where there are chalk cliffs. Just look at the beach when the tide is out. You will notice long spits of weed-covered rocks, which sometimes run far out into the sea. Well, those rocks were not always rocks. They were once the bottoms of cliffs. But the piddocks and the sea, working together, cut the cliffs down; so that the sea gained, yard by yard, upon the land.

Indeed, I think that it may be said, quite truly, that if it had not been for the work of the piddocks Great Britain would not be an island! At any rate we do know this, that once, a great many hundreds of thousands of years ago, Great Britain was not an island at all, but was joined to the mainland of the Continent of Europe. And we also know that the sea, acting by itself, could not possibly have cut a passage through what we now call the Straits of Dover. The piddocks helped it to do so! They kept on cutting away the foundation of the cliffs by boring backwards and forwards through the solid chalk, just below the level of the waves; and the sea finished the work which the piddocks had begun, by breaking down the thin dividing walls between their burrows.

PLATE XVII
THE LITTLE PIDDOCK (2 and 3)

The common piddock grows to a length of from three to five inches, and is almost always white in colour, though sometimes it is stained by the rocks in which it lives. But there is another kind of piddock which is very much smaller, for its shells hardly ever measure more than an inch and a half in length, and are a good deal narrower in proportion to their size. This creature is called the Little Piddock. It is generally of a brownish yellow colour, and you may often find its burrows in great numbers in limestone rocks.

[Plate XVII]

1. THE PIDDOCK.2. AND 3. THE LITTLE PIDDOCK.

PLATE XVIII
THE SHIP-WORM (1 and 2)

This creature certainly does not look in the very least like a mollusc; and I do not think that anybody who had never seen it before would ever guess that it is really quite a near relation of the piddocks. It looks much more like a kind of worm, for it has a soft round body no larger than an ordinary drawing pencil, though it is often as much as ten or even twelve inches in length. But if you were to look at the head end of its body you would see its bivalve shells, though they are so very small that they might easily be mistaken for jaws. And these would show you that the animal is really a shell-bearing mollusc.

The shipworm is a most mischievous creature, for instead of burrowing into chalk or limestone rocks, like the piddocks, it bores into timber, such as the hulls of ships, and the posts which support jetties and piers. Very often it cuts away more than half the wood in a great beam, leaving only the thinnest walls between its tunnels. And as it works along it lines these tunnels with a curious shelly substance, which strengthens them and prevents them from breaking down.

By burrowing into timber in this way the shipworm often does most terrible damage. But it seems to dislike the taste of iron rust very much indeed. So when a beam of timber has to be protected from its attacks, a number of iron nails with very broad, flat heads are driven into the surface, with only the space of an inch or two between them. The salt-water acts upon these very quickly, and the result is that the whole of the beam is very soon covered over with a thin coating of rust, so that no shipworm will attempt to touch it.

[Plate XVIII]

1. THE SHIP-WORM.2. WOOD BORED BY SHIP-WORMS.

When the shipworm is quite small it is not in the least like the perfect animal. Indeed, if you were to see a baby shipworm, I do not think that you would ever guess what it was. It is really a kind of shipworm caterpillar. In shape it is nearly round, and is covered almost all over with tiny hair-like organs, by means of which it swims in the water. But the odd thing about it is that it keeps on changing its form. After about thirty-six hours it becomes oval. A few hours later, if you were to look at it again, you would find that it was almost triangular. A few hours later still it would be round again, just as it was when it first hatched out of the egg. And during this time of its life it has a strong fleshy “foot,” like that of a snail, so that if it becomes tired of swimming it can settle down and crawl about on the surface of the rocks.

Have you ever been through the Thames tunnel? If you have, you will be interested to know that it is made just like a shipworm’s burrow, for a kind of boring instrument, called a “shield,” was made, which enabled the workmen to line the walls with masonry as fast as the earth was cut away. In this way the walls were prevented from falling in, and water from the river above was kept from breaking through the roof and flooding the tunnel. And Brunel, the great engineer who constructed the tunnel, admitted that the idea had come to him one day when he was examining the burrow of this wonderful mollusc.

PLATE XIX
THE RAZOR (1 and 2)

If you walk about very quietly, when the tide is out, on the stretch of wet, sandy mud which lies just above low-water mark, you may often see a very curious object resting at the surface, and looking just like a little key-hole. And if you step heavily anywhere near it, it is almost sure to squirt up a little jet of water into the air and disappear. Then you may be quite sure that you have found the burrow of a Razor Shell.

This is a very long, narrow creature with bivalve shells, which are shaped almost exactly like the handle of a razor. It is generally about four or five inches in length and half-an-inch in width, and the object which looks so like a key-hole consists of its siphon tubes, the tips of which rest just above the surface of the sand when it is lying at the mouth of its burrow. It digs by means of its strong, fleshy “foot,” just as the cockle does, and its burrow, which goes straight downwards just like a well, is often as much as two feet deep. So it is not a very easy thing to get a razor out of its tunnel. But if you want to do so I can tell you how to manage it. Just take a good big pinch of salt, and drop it down into the hole. Now the razor does not like salt at all, even though most of its life is spent at the bottom of the salt-water, and it comes up to the mouth of its burrow in a great hurry to get rid of it. Then if you make a very quick stroke with a spade you can dig it out before it has time to get down to the bottom again. But if you should fail to get it up at the first attempt it is of no use to try again, for even if you pour down a whole handful of salt the animal will never come up a second time.

[Plate XIX]

1. THE RAZOR.2. TOP OF RAZOR FROM FRONT.
3. THE SABRE RAZOR.

The razor is very good to eat, if its tough leathery skin is slipped off, and on some parts of the coast it is often used for food. The fishermen use it for bait, too, and catch it by means of a slender iron rod with a barbed tip, which they thrust into its body as it lies at the bottom of its burrow.

PLATE XIX
THE SABRE RAZOR (3)

There are several different kinds of Razors, and one of them is called the “sabre razor,” because its shells are curved, just like the scabbard of a sabre. It is fairly common, but you are never likely to find its burrows, unless you go to look for them just at low-water after a spring-tide, because it almost always lives below the ordinary low-water mark. But after spring-tides—which come twice in every month, once when the moon is new and once when it is full—the waves retreat much farther than they do at other times. Then, if you go right down to the water’s edge, you may often find creatures which you will never meet with higher up on the beach. And one of these is the sabre razor.

PLATE XX
THE PINNA

This is the largest of all the shell-bearing molluscs which live in our British seas, for it has been known to reach a length of nearly two feet. It is found chiefly on our southern coasts, and always lies upright, half buried in the mud at the bottom of the water, with its shells partly opened. And it always fastens itself down by a bunch of “byssus” threads, like those of the mussel, which are so strong that it takes a very hard pull indeed to tear them away from their hold.

In the British Museum you may see a pair of gloves which have been made out of the byssus threads of a pinna, and if these creatures were more plentiful their threads would no doubt be used in this way very largely indeed.

Now why do you think that the pinna always rests at the bottom of the water with its shells partly opened?

[Plate XX]