One cluster contained thirty Lepades, and the other eighteen. The average length of each Barnacle is about three or four inches. One, however, measured nearly ten inches. The fleshy stalk is of a purplish-grey colour, semi-transparent, and perfectly smooth. The shell, which consists of five pieces, is bluish-white, while that portion from whence the cirri protrude appears of a brilliant orange, the cirri themselves being exquisitely tinted with violet, shaded off to a deep purple. I may here mention that the above animal was by our ancestors most unaccountably supposed to be the young of the solan goose!--a bird that haunts in vast numbers the Bass Rock and Ailsa Craig. Indeed, a common belief in different parts of Scotland, and over the west of England was, that the shells grew upon certain trees, and in process of time opened of themselves; whereupon a certain animated substance contained within the shell dropped down, and according to the place where it fell perished or fructified. By falling into the water it grew to be a fowl; but by falling upon land the vital principle became extinct. The fowls which resulted from the more fortunate contingency were called Barnacle Geese in Scotland, and Brant, or Tree Geese in England. This delusion appears to have arisen from the fact of Barnacles having been found in great abundance on trunks and even branches of trees long submerged in the sea.[8] Bishop Hall thus alludes to the popular notion in his Satires:-- 'His father dead! tush, no, it was not he; He finds records of his great pedigree; And tells how first his famous ancestor Did come in long since with the Conqueror. Nor hath some bribed herald first assigned His quartered arms, and crest of gentle kind; _The Scottish Barnacle, if I might choose, That of a worme, doth waxe a winged goose_.' [8] Vide author's 'Seaside and Aquarium.' CHAPTER IX. Phyllodoce Laminosa--the Laminated Nereis 'His meaner works Are yet his care, and have and interest all-- All, in the universal Father's love.' --COWPER. [Illustration: 1 COMMON BARNACLES attached to shell of Limpet 2 ANIMAL OF THE LIMPET (_P. vulgata_) as seen from below 3 THE LAMINATED NEREIS (_Phyllodoce Laminosa_)] IX. To oblige an English correspondent who requested some blocks of stone containing Pholas perforations, the writer, in company with a fellow-student, started betimes for the sea-shore, some four miles' distance. We made for a certain spot, where it was expected the object of our wishes could easily be found. Our equipment consisted merely of a hammer, a bottle, and two chisels, enclosed in a carpet-bag, the better to mask our mission from impertinent curiosity.