Like most other writers who quote this strange account, I have not had ocular proof of its accuracy.[9] That it is quite probable I can readily believe, as a pretty experiment will partly prove it to any spirited aquarian. Following out the above idea of the bridge at Bideford, I managed to build an exceedingly pretty centre piece for my tank. [9] Since writing the above, I have received the following interesting epistle from Mr. Edward Capern, the celebrated 'poet and rural postman' of Bideford, who kindly sought out the information I desired, relative to the present state of the bridge above alluded to:-- Bideford, January 27, 1859. DEAR SIR,--I have inquired of the bridge warder, and he informs me that the feoffees of the bridge command mussels to be brought up by the cart-load, to protect the foundation, which is laid on _rubble_. I am pleased that it has been in my power to procure this information for you--I am, dear sir, faithfully yours, EDWARD CAPERN. Having no ready means of making a rock arch, I collected such pieces of rock, stones, &c., with weeds attached, as I thought would answer my purpose, and then proceeded to fabricate the object of my wishes in the following simple way: First were laid two stones parallel to each other at three or four inches apart. Upon these I placed a large piece of rock in a transverse direction. Between the interstices a number of small mussels were then inserted. When fully satisfied that the bivalves had moored themselves, I gradually piled one piece of rock upon another until the structure reached the desired height, each piece being bound to its neighbour by means of the byssus threads of the Mytili. Before each block of stone that formed the foundations of the arch was placed a splendid frond of Lettuce Ulva, tied by a strand of silk to a white pebble. These verdant fronds, so smooth in texture and so gracefully convoluted, rising up from the base of the tank and reaching to its brim,--mingling, too, with the various tufts of corallines and other sea-weeds that jutted from each crevice, were very pretty to look at. When disturbed by the movements of the fishes passing in and out, the gracefulness and beauty of the sea-weed was doubly increased.