Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/57

30 of the Periwinkle (L. littorea), marching soberly along beneath his massive mansion, stopping to munch the tender shoot of some Alga, or leisurely circumambulating the pretty tide-pool which he has chosen for his present residence. You may tell that all his movements are marked by gravity and deliberation, for if he does not let the grass grow under his feet, (I beg his pardon, he has but one foot; though, as that is somewhat of the amplest, he is not deficient in understanding) he lets it grow over his head. It is quite common to see one of these Mollusks adorned with a goodly Ulva or other sea-weed that has taken root on the summit of his shell, so that he habitually sits under the shadow of his own roof-tree.

"But why does he talk to us about such common trash as periwinkles?" Be not captious, gentle reader! The Periwinkle is an humble member of society certainly, but there are one or two points about him that render him not wholly unworthy of your notice. If you have seen him only fast shut up within his stony shell, with his tight-fitting opercle or "cap" shut close down, defying all intrusion into his privacy, there is nothing very attractive in his person; but when you look at him crawling, especially through the side of a glass vessel up which he is quietly mounting, you may possibly find something to admire in his zebra-like stripes and netted markings. I have more than once heard the surprised exclamation, "Why, he is quite a handsome creature!" But "handsome is that handsome does;" the Periwink is useful, especially to those who mean to keep an Aquarium. The sea-water constantly holds