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164
Glaucus; Or, The Wonders of the Shore
·
Charles Kingsley
95
There;
we
must
come
away
now,
for
the
tide
is
over
our
ankles;
but
touch,
before
you
go,
one
of
those
little
red
mouths
which
peep
out
of
the
stone.
A
tiny
jet
of
water
shoots
up
almost
into
your
face.
The
bivalve
{139a}
who
has
burrowed
into
the
limestone
knot
(the
softest
part
of
the
stone
to
his
jaws,
though
the
hardest
to
your
chisel)
is
scandalized
at
having
the
soft
mouths
of
his
siphons
so
rudely
touched,
and
taking
your
finger
for
some
bothering
Annelid,
who
wants
to
nibble
him,
is
defending
himself;
shooting
you,
as
naturalists
do
humming-birds,
with
water.
Let
him
rest
in
peace;
it
will
cost
you
ten
minutes’
hard
work,
and
much
dirt,
to
extract
him;
but
if
you
are
fond
of
shells,
secure
one
or
two
of
those
beautiful
pink
and
straw-coloured
scallops
(Hinnites
pusio,
Plate
X.
fig.
1),
who
have
gradually
incorporated
the
layers
of
their
lower
valve
with
the
roughnesses
of
the
stone,
destroying
thereby
the
beautiful
form
which
belongs
to
their
race,
but
not
their
delicate
colour.
There
are
a
few
more
bivalves
too,
adhering
to
the
stone,
and
those
rare
ones,
and
two
or
three
delicate
Mangeliæ
and
Nassæ
{139b}
are
trailing
their
graceful
spires
up
and
down
in
search
of
food.
That
little
bright
red
and
yellow
pea,
too,
touch
it—
the
brilliant
coloured
cloak
is
withdrawn,
and,
instead,
you
have
a
beautiful
ribbed
pink
cowry,
{140a}
our
only
European
representative
of
that
grand
tropical
family.
Cast
one
wondering
glance,
too,
at
the
forest
of
zoophytes
and
corals,
Lepraliæ
and
Flustræ,
and
those
quaint
blue
stars,
set
in
brown
jelly,
which
are
no
zoophytes,
but
respectable
molluscs,
each
with
his
well-formed
mouth
and
intestines,
{140b}
but
combined
in
a
peculiar
form
of
Communism,
of
which
all
one
can
say
is,
that
one
hopes
they
like
it;
and
that,
at
all
events,
they
agree
better
than
the
heroes
and
heroines
of
Mr.
Hawthorne’s
“Blithedale
Romance.”
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