certain pellucid sea-drops materialise and ultimately shed themselves as
living organisms "into the shining sea."

On November 6, 1908, the sea tossed up on the beach an exceptionally
large and absolutely perfect specimen of the egg-cluster of that spacious
and useful mollusc known as the Bailer Shell (MELO DIADEMA or CYMBIUM
FLAMMEUM). Its measurements were: length, 161 in.; circumference at
base, 123 in.; at middle, 111 in.; at apex 7 1/8 in. It weighed 13 lb. and
comprised 126 distinct capsules. The photograph presents a candid
likeness.

During the same month and the first two weeks of December portions of
several other egg-clusters came ashore, and as they were in nicely
graduated stages of development I was enabled to indulge in an
exceptionally entertaining study--no less than the observation of the
transformation of glistening fluid into solid matter and life. In passing
it may be mentioned that the first and the last two months of the year
appear to constitute the period when the offspring of the species see the
light of day, proving that the natural impulses of some molluscs are
subject to rule and regulation similarly to those of birds and other
terrestrial forms.

Each of the capsules composing the cluster is a cone with the apex free
and interior, while the base is external and adherent to its immediate
neighbours, but not completely so throughout its circumference. It
follows, therefore, that the cluster of capsules is hollow and that water
flushes it throughout. In appearance it resembles a combination of the
pineapple and the corncob, and to the base a portion of the coral-stem to
which it had been anchored by its considerate parent was firmly attached.