eat number of large creeks and rivers wander through the marshes on
the seaboard of Georgia. Whenever the tide bends forcibly against the
land, the effects are counteracted by the walls of living oysters which
grow upon each other from the beds of the rivers to the very verge of
the banks. They are in such abundance, that a vessel of a hundred tons
might load herself in three times her length. Bunches of them
sufficient to fill a bushel are found matted as it were together, and
the neighboring inhabitants and laborers light fires upon the marsh
grass, roll a bunch of oysters upon it, and then eat them.

THE SCALLOP.

The GREAT SCALLOP has the power of progressive motion upon the land,
and likewise of swimming on the surface of the water. When it happens
to be deserted by the tide, it opens its shell to the full extent, then
shuts it with a sudden jerk, often rising five or six inches from the
ground. In this manner, it tumbles forward until it regains the water.

When the sea is calm, troops of little fleets of scallops, it is said,
are sometimes to be observed swimming on the waves. They elevate one
valve above the top of the water, which is used as a kind of sail,
while they float on the other, which remains on the surface.

CLASS II. ARTICULATA ... JOINTED ANIMALS.

These animals have not an internal skeleton, like the vertebrata; nor
are they wholly destitute of a skeleton, as are the mollusca. The hard
parts are external, and the muscles are internal. The class includes
red-blooded worms, the _crustacea_, spiders, and insects.

THE LEECH.

If you ever pass through La Brienne, in France, you will see a man
pale, and straight-haired, with a woollen cap on his head, and his legs
and arms naked. He walks along the borders of a marsh, among the spots
left dry by the surrounding waters, but particularly wherever the
vegetation seems to present the subjacent soil undisturbed. This man is
a leech-fisher. To see him at a distance,--his hollow aspect, livid
lips, and singular gestures,--you would take him for a patient who had
left his sick bed in a fit of delirium. If you observe him every now
and then raising his legs, and examining them one after another, you
might suppose him a fool; but he is an intelligent leech-fisher. The
leeches attach themselves to his legs and feet, and as he moves along
their haunts, he feels them bite, and gathers them as they cluster
round the roots of the bulrushes and sea-