accordance with a symmetrical design, the interior being lined with a
transparent substance, which, when dry, is readily separable from the
casing! This creature accomplishes by calculation, choice, and dexterity
that which a subtle chemical process does unconsciously for the more
advanced mollusc, and that it practised the art of the interlocking of
atoms ages before the birth of Macadam can scarcely be doubted.

My imagination loves to dwell on the perceptive faculties possessed by
this lowly creature, a creature soft and delicate, merely such and such a
length of gelatinous substance, slightly stiffened and toughened and
graced with a pair of tentacles glittering like tinsel extended from a
marvellously constructed tube.

In certain structural details the animal (which in appearance has greater
resemblance to a caterpillar than a worm) is even more remarkable than
the ornate dwelling it constructs, for it is an actual though living
prototype of the fabled race (catalogued by Othello with the
anthropophagi)--


"Whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders."


The paradox exists, not as a whim or grimace on the part of Nature but
for a definite and vital end. In default the animal would be unable to
obey the first law of Nature--self preservation--for it is soft-bodied and
its dwelling has the serious defect of being open at both ends. In such
plight lacking special organs it would be at cruel advantage in the
struggle for existence. The posterior segment of the body is therefore