.)

Down, February 21st, 1882.

Your fact is an interesting one, and I am very much obliged to you for
communicating it to me. You speak a little doubtfully about the name of
the shell, and it would be indispensable to have this ascertained with
certainty. Do you know any good conchologist in Northampton who could
name it? If so I should be obliged if you would inform me of the result.

Also the length and breadth of the shell, and how much of leg (which
leg?) of the Dytiscus [a large water-beetle] has been caught. If you
cannot get the shell named I could take it to the British Museum when I
next go to London; but this probably will not occur for about six weeks,
and you may object to lend the specimen for so long a time.

I am inclined to think that the case would be worth communicating to
"Nature."

P.S.--I suppose that the animal in the shell must have been alive when
the Dytiscus was captured, otherwise the adductor muscle of the shell
would have relaxed and the shell dropped off.

LETTER 401. TO W.D. CRICK. Down, February 25th, 1882.

I am much obliged for your clear and distinct answers to my questions.
I am sorry to trouble you, but there is one point which I do not fully
understand. Did the shell remain attached to the beetle's leg from the
18th to the 23rd, and was the beetle kept during this time in the air?

Do I understand rightly that after the shell had dropped off, both being
in water, that the beetle's antenna was again temporarily caught by the
shell?

I presume that I may keep the specimen till I go to London, which will
be about the middle of next month.

I have placed the shell in fresh-water, to see if the valve will open,
and whether it is still alive, for this seems to me a very interesting
point. As the wretched beetle was still feebly alive, I have put it in
a bottle with chopped laurel leaves, that it may die an easy and quicker
death. I hope that I shall meet with your approval in doing so.

One of my sons tells me that on the coast of N. Wales the bare fishing
hooks often bring up young mussels which have seized hold of the points;
but I must make further enquiries on this head.

LETTER 402. TO W.D. CRICK. Down, March 23rd, 1882.

I have had a most unfortunate and extraordinary accident with your
shell. I sent it by post in a strong box to Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys to be
named, and heard two days afterwards that he had started for Italy.
I then wrote to the servant in charge of hi