“Well,” said Mrs. Merton, “we will not detain you, since you have such important business in hand.”
He thanked her; but before he went he took something out of his pocket, which he gave to Agnes. “Here,” said he, “is something curious that I picked up on the rocks where I landed. I also saw a Grampus on the shore at the Shingles;” and, so saying, he wished them good-bye, and ran off.
“What strange things these are that he has given me, mamma!” cried Agnes. “Do look! what can they be?”
BURROWING MOLLUSCS (_Gastrochæna Pholodia_). ]
“They are cases made by a kind of Molluscous animal,” said her mother, “that lives like the Pholas enclosed in a burrow; but instead of taking up its dwelling in rocks, it forms itself a curious covering with broken bits of Corals and Madrepores, mixed with fragments of limestone, sand, gravel, and in short anything it can find. These materials it works up into the form of a flask, as you see; uniting them by a thick glutinous liquid, which exudes from its own body; and lining the whole with a kind of limy substance, which makes it quite smooth. Now we will open one of the cases, and I will show you what a curious little creature it is that makes this singular case.”
Agnes was quite surprised to see how small the shell was of the little creature that had been working so hard; but they were not in a situation to stand much longer, and, indeed, they could not have remained so long had they not been in a hollow part of the rock. They then descended to the beach; and were quite astonished when they looked up to the cliff. The construction of Alum Bay is, indeed, very curious. On one side, it is bounded by high cliffs of chalk, and on the other, by horizontal strata of diluvial soil, which extend to Freshwater; but the most remarkable feature of the place consists of the vertical strata in the centre. At one end of these is the London clay, which is of a bluish grey; and then follow narrow vertical stripes of red and yellow ochre, fuller’s earth, black flints, and grey and white sand: the colours of all the different kinds being so brilliant as to be seen distinctly at a little distance. While Mrs. Merton and Agnes stood on the beach, they saw hanging above them a man engaged in taking birds’-eggs. He had driven a large stake into the top of the cliff; to which he had fastened a strong rope, with two sticks placed crossways, at the other end, for him to sit on. It made Agnes giddy to look at this man; and she gladly turned her head from him, to listen to what their guide was telling her mother about Alum Bay, and the manner in which bottles are filled with the sands.