it was light on by chance, deserv'd to have been omitted (I being unable to
direct any one to find the like) yet for its rarity was it not
inconsiderable, especially upon the account of the information it may
afford us. For by it we have a very good instance of the curiosity of
Nature in another kind of Animals which are remov'd, by reason of their
minuteness, beyond the reach of our eyes, so that as there are several
sorts of Insects, as Mites, and others, so small as not yet to have had any
names; (some of which I shall afterwards describe) and small Fishes, as
Leeches in Vineger; and smal vegetables, as Moss, and Rose-Leave-plants;
and small Mushroms, as mould: so are there, it seems, small Shel-fish
likewise, Nature shewing her curiosity in every Tribe of _Animals_,
_Vegetables_, and _Minerals_.

I was trying several small and single Magnifying Glasses, and casually
viewing a parcel of white Sand, when I perceiv'd one of the grains exactly
shap'd and wreath'd like a Shell, but endeavouring to distinguish it with
my naked eye, it was so very small, that I was fain again to make use of
the Glass to find it; then, whilest I thus look'd on it, with a Pin I
separated all the rest of the granules of Sand, and found it afterwards to
appear to the naked eye an exceeding small white spot, no bigger than the
point of a Pin. Afterwards I view'd it every way with a better _Microscope_
and found it on both sides, and edge-ways, to resemble the Shell of a small
Water-Snail with a flat spiral Shell: it had twelve wreathings, a, b, c, d,
e, &c. all very proportionably growing one less than another toward the
middle or center of the Shell, where there was a very small round white
spot. I could not certainly discover whether the Shell were hollow or not,
but it seem'd fill'd with somewhat, and 'tis probable that it might be
_petrify'd_ as other larger Shels often are, such as are mention'd in the
seventeenth _Observation_.