But what was that scarlet knob that we saw protruded and retracted but
now? Ha! as it lies, slightly gaping, the lips of the mantle recede,
and we catch a peep within of the gorgeous colour. Suddenly the valves
open to their full extent, like the folding doors of a drawing-room,
allowing exit to a richly dressed lady. Here comes the vermilion
tenant! Place for my lady! But what is she? And what is she about to do
in her gorgeous raiment? Nay; ’tis but the cockle’s foot; a monopod
he is: this is all the foot he has. It is clad in neither shoe nor
stocking; and truly it needs it not. Never was the silken-hosed foot
of cardinal arrayed like this. But see to what an extent the organ
protrudes! four inches from the valves’ edges does its tip reach;
smooth, lubricous, taper, with a knee at the upper part, and the toe
bent in the form of a hook. As to its general appearance when thus
extended, I have compared it to a finger of polished carnelian; but
Mr. Kingsley thinks that this resemblance will not hold, the foot
being too opaque for that gem: he likens it to a long capsicum, which
is, however, too dull and too dark; and he tells a story of a certain
(mythic, I fear) countess who, seeing it for the first time, exclaimed,
“Oh, dear! I always heard that my pretty red coral came out of a fish,
and here it is, all alive!”
Nay; after all, it is what it is; and those comparisons just help one
who has never seen it, to form some conception of its appearance; but
by one who has, all will be rejected as inadequate.
And as to what the brilliant organ is going to do, that we see. For
the long taper foot being thrust to its utmost, feels about for some
resisting surface, that stone, half buried in the sand, for instance;
which no sooner does it feel than the hooked point is pressed stiffly
against it, the whole foot by muscular contraction is made suddenly
rigid, and the entire creature,--mantle, siphons, foot, shell and
all--is jerked away in an uncouth manner, “quite permiscous,” as the
fisherman hard-by says, to a distance of some foot or more. But the
cockle can leap on occasion much more vigorously; one has been seen
to throw itself clear over the gunwale of a boat when laid on the
bottom-boards.