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164
Glaucus; Or, The Wonders of the Shore
·
Charles Kingsley
53
Here,
adhering
to
this
large
whelk,
is
another,
but
far
larger
and
coarser.
It
is
Sagartia
parasitica,
one
of
our
largest
British
species;
and
most
singular
in
this,
that
it
is
almost
always
(in
Torbay,
at
least,)
found
adhering
to
a
whelk:
but
never
to
a
live
one;
and
for
this
reason.
The
live
whelk
(as
you
may
see
for
yourself
when
the
tide
is
out)
burrows
in
the
sand
in
chase
of
hapless
bivalve
shells,
whom
he
bores
through
with
his
sharp
tongue
(always,
cunning
fellow,
close
to
the
hinge,
where
the
fish
is),
and
then
sucks
out
their
life.
Now,
if
the
anemone
stuck
to
him,
it
would
be
carried
under
the
sand
daily,
to
its
own
disgust.
It
prefers,
therefore,
the
dead
whelk,
inhabited
by
a
soldier
crab,
Pagurus
Bernhardi
(Pl.
II.
Fig.
2),
of
which
you
may
find
a
dozen
anywhere
as
the
tide
goes
out;
and
travels
about
at
the
crab’s
expense,
sharing
with
him
the
offal
which
is
his
food.
Note,
moreover,
that
the
soldier
crab
is
the
most
hasty
and
blundering
of
marine
animals,
as
active
as
a
monkey,
and
as
subject
to
panics
as
a
horse;
wherefore
the
poor
anemone
on
his
back
must
have
a
hard
life
of
it;
being
knocked
about
against
rocks
and
shells,
without
warning,
from
morn
to
night
and
night
to
morn.
Against
which
danger,
kind
Nature,
ever
maxima
in
minimis,
has
provided
by
fitting
him
with
a
stout
leather
coat,
which
she
has
given,
I
believe,
to
no
other
of
his
family.
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