“Because I could not manage it, my dear madam. Just under the cliff, where the Cormorants were sitting, there was a narrow slip of beach; and I landed there with great difficulty, as the swell of the sea was very heavy, and the bottom there is very bad. I was now almost perpendicularly under the birds, and I could plainly see their long necks, and stiff, still heads poked out towards the sea; and in the same position they continued, without turning their heads to the right or to the left, though I wasted a great quantity of shot upon them, and some excellent powder, which I grudged very much: and so, finding that I could do no good, shooting at them from below, I am now come to try a shot from above; but I must not be long, for we shall have hard work to get through the Needles if we let the tide get too low, and we must be back at Freshwater to dinner.” “Did you see any of the eggs?” asked Agnes. “Oh! yes, plenty of the Guillemots and Razor-bills, which were lying singly on the ledges of the rocks, and shaking with every puff of wind; for they are only just balanced on the bare rocks on which they lie: but the Puffins lay their eggs in the long holes they hollow out of the chalk. I have seen a man put his arm in almost up to the shoulder, to pull a Puffin’s egg out of its hole; for the birds always contrive to lay them at the very bottom.” “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?” [Illustration: _Fig. 10._ 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.”