The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1864-08-20

In the July number of BlacA;woodS Wago,
ziHe IS a very readable review of "Jeflrey,s
British Conchology," from which we take
the following extracts:
THE SEA SERPENT 4 REALITY.
Look carefully as you pass along the
shore. apd you may possibly pick up one of
the vcrtcbrr of sea serpent, and so settle
that veXed question at once and forever,
and immOrtaIiZe yourself in the annals of
zoology by its production. AS to the eXls
| teucc OF such crcature-call him in scien-
tifc language ERofosoUrHS, or what you
wlll-alI that we can say is, men have been
hung, and no doubt very properly hung, on
far less conclusive evidence.
TIE EARTH swARMING WITH SHELLS.
Something has been said of the exceed.
| ing truitiulncss Of ocean. But every spot
OF earth is also more or less inhabited -
Many of our readers will have seen and ad-
mircd the ken;ish bank of wild flowers,
admirably modelled in wax, in the eastern
have had no idea, perhaps. until they
studied it there, of the wonderful variety of
floral life concentrated in so small space
But the animal life which such spot might
contain is even more wonderful STILL
| There is probably not n square foot Of
land" says Mr.. ,Ietireys, 50 either in a cul-
| tivated or uncultivated state, that IS not
inhabited by mullusca Of various kinds. u
| here are said to be above two thousand
species of land shells aonc scventy.tour
| belong to our own island. On this said
hcntlsh bank, at early morning, or on Il
dcwy evening, the dilligent observer (who
has " eyes in the sense of Mrs. Barbauld'
story might find some half dozen species at
least with little difficulty. Hctir (aHtjoa0,
| the kcntish snail so called because first
noticed in that county, with its rosy red llp
and delicate blush, crawling slowly over the
leaves and flowers; Heiic hjSpid0. with its
downy covering, like little hairy ball
H'ljT pHichcii0, which the French call Ia
mtGno"nc-a pretty pale gray shell, whose
| inhabiant is very shy, and draws in its
shining black eyes (if eyes they be- in the
very slightest disturbance hanging on again
to violet bud, glistening in the dew, like
IL pendant to a maiden ear, is another with
a harder name-Cochiiropo Mbrico; the
minute tower shaped P,pa uwbHic0to, car
rying her (hs? the point is curously doubt
t1D young family about on a fold of the
| shell. like gypsy babies-"a kind of mar
supial arrangement; C0u%iid, again, so
called from the curious spring door inside
shut in a moment when alarmed by the
approach of a centipede or yagrant ant
both shell and door forming piece of spiral
mechanism which Archimedcs might have
studied with delight, had there been any
conchologsts in his days. This CluUSiiio.
be it observed, wears her heart on her
wrong side. and has the spiral 'whorls'
of her she'll twisted from right to left, sin
the wry uncommon way as old Morton
calls il, "whercaS all other shells, whether
of the land or sea, have a quite different
turn-viz: from the left hand to the right.
thereby observing, as it We're, the suns
motion on this north side OF the Equator"
TIE REAL ARROWS OF CUPID.
What shall we say of his courtship?
"bjzmTe" in the extreme it is, as the
frenchman calls it. But he is a pattern
lover. He will spend ten hours at time
good deal out of his short life of seven or
eight years-in the most quiet but devoted
attention to the object Of his affections;
carcssing her occasionally with those pretty
little horns, of which no one seems to know
whether they are eyes, or cars or hands.
NJ. Turpin, as Mr.. jetfrcys tells US, has
watched the pair Of lovers for more than
that space of ume-a proceeding which we
cannot think was polite on the part of the
Frenchman. How would he like to be
watched, under similar circumstances. by Il
natural. history detective III plain clothes?
But what will our readers say when they
learn thatCupid' arrows the real Cupid
arrows, not those You buy on valentines
the - crystal darts y which we always
thought were mythical-arc actual cxis-
fences in snail courtship--thc love letters of
Uciir dsperSa? Let Mr.. Jeflrcys tell his
own story, which is marvellous enough, in
a few plain words--we should be sorry to
spoil it by any of our CLOSES:
"Thcy are furnished with crystalline
darts. which they shoot at each other after
preliminary coquetting. These curiouslove
weapons have been observed sticking in the
bodies of snais after such conflicts. They
are contained in a special pouch or recep
tacie, ready Tor use, and are peculiar 10 the
present genus (Hciir.) Their shape varies
according to the species. In some species
each individual has only one of these mis-
siles, in another two and q few have none
at all
Talk after this of exchanging locks of
hair, broken siXpences with a hole through
them. alternate bites of appe-why, our
poor human love tokens are all coarse and
prosac in comparison ! Here is the very
pot'iJ VI io'S' nc lpNfS VI Ilc .oIdilS.
With such a subject still untouched how
long are We to live open to the reproach that
we have no new poets?
SHEEP FATTENED ca sNAIIs.
We all know how very excellent the Dart
moor mutton is; few, probably, are aware
that it is to the snail we are indebted for the
richness of its flavor. A correspondent of
The fSeld is quoted as the modern authority
but he only corroboratcs a very old belief.
Borlase asserted it in his "Natural History
of Cornwall, " a hundred years ago. Mr..
jetiryeS gives the passage =
1.-The sweetest mutton is reckoned to be
that Of the smallest sheep, which usually
feed on the commons. where the sands are
scarce covered with the green sod and the
grass is exceedingly short: Such are the