Welsh Journals

Natural History and Phenomena. 489 sticking to the greased sounding-lead. Little or no fish: " about she goes," to try another tack ; or else wait for a fresh breeze which a dark ripple-mark promised in the distance, if it should reach us. But, though the piscatorial expectations were disappointed, the zoological treasures of the deep were spread in unexpected profusion before those "quis talia curae." The deck, which appeared a blank to the worthy Col- and all his "hands," was covered with what Willis (?) of New Brighton used to describe as "the curussest hugliest things as ever you'd wish to see ;" every shake of the net dispersed, along with the bitter ros marinus, a fresh shower of invaluable rubbish before " the observing eye." My boyish imagination had never pic¬ tured such a farrago of living wonders. I could hardly believe my eyes when they spied the beautiful shell Tro- chus zizyphinus with the inhabitant really inhabiting it! But if that astonished my weak mind, how was I electri¬ fied at the apparition of that same creature scrambling across the deck at a pace more like that of a mouse than a snail! obstupui, steteruntque comae, et vox faucibus haesit! ! When, at last, I found words to express my as¬ tonishment, Jack laughed incredulously, asking if I had never seen a young lobster chick (cyw lobstar). He and his fellows very naturally concluded that this strange crus- tace {more like a lobster than anything else), was really the young of that ferocious animal, availing himself of a snail's shell till his own was grown ; even as Stephen Liddle ("Capt L.") was glad of the tailor's wife's apron, while Snip was repairing his cracked black satin. A priori, this con¬ jectural explanation by the fishermen was far, far more probable than the marvellous reality, that a strong-shelled animal should be constructed permanently with a view to the occupation of a second-hand case. Strange to say,