To test a fact, relative to the power which the Amphitrite is said to possess, in common with other tubiculous Annelids, of renewing certain portions of its body after sustaining injury, I snipped off the principal portions of its branchiæ, and found that, after the lapse of a few months, my specimen renewed its mutilated organs. CHAPTER XI. The Common Mussel. 'Travelling is not good for us; we travel so seldom. How much more dignified leisure _hath a Mussel glued to his impassable rocky limit two inches square_! He hears the tide roll over him, backwards and forwards, twice a day (as the Salisbury coach goes and returns in eight and forty hours), but knows better than to take an outside place on the top on't. _He is the owl of the sea, Minerva's fish_, the _fish of wisdom_.' C. LAMB to B. BARTON. [Illustration: 1 COMMON MUSSEL (_Mytilus edulis_) a The foot b The byssus c c Muscles which regulate the action of the foot 2 THE MUSSEL CLOSED 3 THE BERÖE (_Cydippe pileus_) 4 THE FAN AMPHITRITE (_A. ventilabrum_)] XI. In his celebrated journey to the western islands of Scotland, Dr. Johnson tells us that when at Ulinish, hearing of a cavern by the sea-side remarkable for powerful reverberations of sound, he determined to pay a visit to the spot. After dinner, having procured the services of some boatmen, the doctor, in company with Bozzy, started off on his trip, which, on the whole, appears to have been a pleasant one. There was, however, no _echo_ to be heard; but to make up for this disappointment, Mr. Boswell went angling, and caught a wee 'cuddy,' (a fish about the size of a gudgeon), while the doctor was gratified by the sight of some sea-weed growing upon stones, and above all, at witnessing for the first time _Mussels in their natural state_. The impression made by this candid acknowledgment upon our minds is one of wonder, that a man like Johnson could have reached his advanced years without having seen so common a sight. But it is possible that even in our day, with its unprecedented facilities for cheap travelling for the most inland inhabitants, there may be many persons to whom the sight of a Mussel fixed to a boulder by its self-constructed cable, would be as great a novelty as it was to the eloquent author of Rasselas. It is, however, one of the commonest appearances which meet the eye of those in the habit of visiting the sea-shore. At certain localities myriads of Mussels may be noticed attached to the surface of the rocks. So thickly are these sometimes covered over, that the blade of a knife cannot be inserted at any part without touching one or more of the esculent bivalves that are to form the subject of this chapter.