Читать книгу The Book of Shells - Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge . Committee of General Literature and Education - Страница 6

This singular animal is rarely taken, on account of its delicate and perishable substance; it is found in the Southern Ocean. It will be seen, on referring to the engraving, that the shell which it bears merely covers a portion of its body, that in which the most material organs of the animal are found, namely, the heart and the branchiæ, or organs of breathing. These are most curiously placed on the upper part of its body, projecting from it and protected by a delicately white and transparent shell, shaped like a little cap, and of a substance resembling glass. The creature is able to enlarge its body by filling it with water, and in swimming the back is undermost. The shell, which seldom exceeds an inch in length, has been sought after by collectors with great assiduity, and has, at times, fetched as much as ten guineas at a sale; a perfect specimen is very rarely met with. There is a wax model of one of these shells in the British Museum, nearly two inches wide.

THE GLASSY CARINARIA, (Carinaria vitrea.)