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Title: Beautiful shells
        Their nature, structure, and uses familiarly explained; with directions for collecting, cleaning, and arranging them in the cabinet; descriptions of the most remarkable species, and of the creatures which inhabit them; and explanations of the meanings of their scientific names, and of the terms used in conchology

Author: H. G. Adams

Release date: August 7, 2024 [eBook #74207]

Language: English

Original publication: London: Groombridge and Sons, 1856

Credits: WebRover, Tim Lindell, Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEAUTIFUL SHELLS ***





                            BEAUTIFUL SHELLS:

                    THEIR NATURE, STRUCTURE, AND USES
                          FAMILIARLY EXPLAINED;

                           WITH DIRECTIONS FOR
                 COLLECTING, CLEANING, AND ARRANGING THEM
                             IN THE CABINET;

                             DESCRIPTIONS OF
                       THE MOST REMARKABLE SPECIES,
                 AND OF THE CREATURES WHICH INHABIT THEM;

                           AND EXPLANATIONS OF
                 THE MEANINGS OF THEIR SCIENTIFIC NAMES,
                                  AND OF
                      THE TERMS USED IN CONCHOLOGY.

                             BY H. G. ADAMS,
    _Author of “Nests and Eggs of Familiar British Birds,” “Beautiful
     Butterflies,” “Favourite Song Birds,” “A Story of the Seasons,”
                                &c. &c._

         ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS & COLOURED PLATES.

                                 LONDON:
                GROOMBRIDGE AND SONS, 5, PATERNOSTER ROW.
                               M DCCC LVI.




INTRODUCTION.


WHAT ARE SHELLS?

Dr. Johnson gives us no less than eight different meanings for the
word SHELL. First, he calls it ‘The hard covering of anything; the
external crust.’ Second, ‘The covering of a testaceous or crustaceous
animal.’ And here we may stop, for this is just the signification
which has to do with our subject; so let us turn the sentence inside
out, and see what we can make of it. We all know what a covering is—an
outer coat, a case, a protection from injury, a husk, a crust, a—in
short, a shell,—_scyll_ or _scell_, as our Saxon forefathers called it;
_schale_, as the Germans now term it. No Latin nor Greek here, but the
good old Saxon tongue, somewhat rough and rugged, perhaps, but stout
and sturdy, and honest and serviceable; a kind of language to stand
wear and tear, like a pair of hob-nailed shoes, with little polish, but
useful, yes, very useful! Well, we have got so far, now comes a hard
word—TES-TA-CE-OUS, what can it mean? It is pronounced _tes-ta-shus_,
comes from the Latin _testaceus_—having a Shell, and means consisting of,
or composed of shells; so we find that a _testacean_ is a shell-fish,
and _testaceology_ is the science of shells. Johnson’s second meaning of
the word _testaceous_ is ‘Having continuous, not jointed shells, opposed
to crustaceous.’ So we find that some naturalists call those testaceous
fish, “whose strong and thick shells are entire and of a piece, because
those which are joined, as the lobsters, are crustaceous.”

Now some of the true testacean have shells in more than one or two
pieces, and therefore this last explanation of the term is rather
calculated to mislead a learner; but we shall explain presently wherein
the difference consists between them, and the CRUS-TA-CE-OUS, or, as
we pronounce it, _krus-ta-shus_, fish consists. Here is another long
word, it comes from the Latin _crusta_, a word of many meanings, all
having reference to an outer coat or covering. My readers know all about
pie-crust, and have perhaps heard a surly, snappish, peevish person
called a crusty fellow; they will now understand what is meant by a
_crustacean_ and _crustaceology_, that part of Zoology which treats
of crustaceous animals. They constitute quite a large family, these
_ologies_, and have a strange way of twisting themselves about, and
exchanging limbs and features, so that one is puzzled at times to tell
which is which. But here we have fixed two of them, called TESTACEOLOGY
and CRUSTACEOLOGY, twin brothers, and very much alike in their
characteristics. Let us have a good look at them, so that we may know
them again if we should lose sight of them for awhile. Now we will spell
over the name of the first—


CONCHOLOGY.

Why, it is changed already? Has this science of shells then another name?
Yes, and this is it, pronounced _kong-kol-o-gy_, and derived from the
Latin _concha_, which means properly a shell-fish with two shells, joined
by a hinge, as the oyster, the cockle, etc. This present volume then is
a work on _Conchology_, the subject of it is _Conchiferous_, and whoever
studies it will be doing something towards becoming a _Conchologist_.

So much for names and titles; but still we have the question to answer,
What are shells? In a learned work called a Cyclopædia, we find it
stated that “shell is the hard calcareous (that is chalky) substance
which protects, either partially or entirely, the testaceous mollusks
externally, or supports certain of them internally.” All this you will
understand, except perhaps the word ‘mollusks;’ this is a term applied
to soft-bodied animals, such as shell-fish, snails, etc., about which we
shall have more to say as we proceed. By this we learn that _all_ shells
are not external or outer coverings, some are internal or inner supports
for the soft, jelly-like bodies to which they belong, thus performing
the duty of bones. An example of this is seen in the shell of the Cuttle
Fish, called by naturalists _Sepia_, a description of which will be found
further on in the book.

Shells are either _Crystalline_ or _Granular_. Now look at those two
words, they almost explain their own meaning. Crystalline shells are
those which have more or less of clearness, transparency as we say, so
that if held against the light it shews through them; they are sometimes
called _Porcellaneous_ shells, from their resemblance in this respect to
porcelain, or chinaware; the Common Cowry, (_Cypræa Tigris_,) is a shell
of this description.

_Granular_, or, as they are sometimes called, _Concretionary_ shells,
are the most hard and compact; it is in these that the substance called
_nacre_, or _mother-of-pearl_, is mostly found. One of the commonest
examples is the oyster shell; if broken across it will be seen to consist
of very thin plates, or _laminæ_, as they are termed, closely packed
together. The thinner these laminæ may be the more lustrous and beautiful
appears the lining of the shell; that shifting play of colours which we
call _iridescent_, from iris—the rainbow, is then brightest and most
noticeable. A very remarkable substance is this mother-of-pearl; smooth,
and shining, and delicately-tinted. Who would expect to find such a
beautiful lining to the rugged, rough, dingy-looking oyster, or mussel
shell? Truly these mollusks, some of them, live in gorgeous palaces. And
the most curious part of the matter is that from the fluids or juices, of
their own bodies, and from the chalky matter collected from the water,
they are enabled to secrete or deposit such wonderfully-constructed
habitations, which after all are little more than chalk. Burn a heap
of oyster shells, or any other testaceous coverings, and you get
lime the same as that produced by burning the white lumps from the
chalk-pit, which lumps, by the way, are said to be composed wholly, or
for the most part, of marine shells. This we should call _cretaceous_
matter, from _creta_, which is the Latin for chalk, or _calcerous_,
from _calcis_—lime. Granular shells you have been told are sometimes
called _concretionary_, this is because they contain a large amount of
this chalky deposit. The rock called limestone, geologists tell us, is
composed entirely of fossil shells and mud, or what was once mud, dried
and hardened, most likely by extreme heat, to the consistence of rock.
Wonderful this to think of; huge mountains, and mighty masses, and
far-stretching strata, forming a large portion of the crust of the earth,
made up chiefly of the coverings of fishes, a great portion of them so
small as to be scarcely visible to the naked eye.—Truly wonderful! But
we shall have more to say upon this head when we come to speak of Fossil
Shells, as well as on the subject of Pearls, in our chapter on the fish
in whose shells they are chiefly found.

It has been a matter of dispute with naturalists whether the testaceous
mollusks have shells at all before they issue from the egg, and the main
evidence favours the opinion that, generally speaking, they do possess
what may be considered as a kind of pattern or model of the habitation
which they are to build. This appears to be of a pale horn-colour, and
destitute of any markings; but as soon as the animal enters upon an
independent state of existence, it begins to assume its distinctive shape
and colour, gradually increasing with the growth of its living tenant,
and becoming more and more decidedly marked, until it attains its full
perfection of testacean development. Thus the age of some shell-fish can
be at once determined by the peculiar conformation and markings of the
shell.

The relative portions of animal and earthy, or rather chalky matter,
which compose these shells, varies considerably in different kinds; in
those called Crystalline or Porcellaneous, the animal deposit is much
less than in the granular or concretionary shells, where it not only
constitutes a large part of the whole substance, but is more dense,
that is thick, and also has the appearance of being membraneous, or
organized matter. We can perhaps best explain this by saying that whereas
the different chalky layers of the crystalline shell seem merely glued
together by the intervening animal fluid; those of the granular shell, as
the oyster, appear to be connected by interlacing membranes. But all this
my readers will learn more about from more advanced and scientific works
if they proceed, as I trust they will do, in the study of CONCHOLOGY, a
science which has in a greater or less degree attracted the attention
of curious and contemplative minds in all ages, and the study of which
it has been well said is peculiarly adapted to recreate the senses,
and insensibly to lead us to the contemplation of the glory of God in
creation.


BEAUTY AND VALUE OF SHELLS.

In shells, as in all the works of the Almighty Creator, we may observe
an infinite variety of form, and if they do not all strike us as alike
graceful, yet in each, however plain and simple, there is some peculiar
beauty, whether it be the mere hollow cup, or the simple tube, the smooth
or twisted cone, the slender spire, the convoluted oval, or half circle,
ribbed or spiked, with a lip curving out like the leaf of a water lily,
or a narrow rim, like that of a golden chalice; they are indeed elegant,
each perfect of its kind, and bearing the impress of a constructive skill
far above that of man, who copies from them some of the most graceful and
elegant designs wherewith to ornament his buildings, and shapes in which
to fashion his articles of luxury or utility.

The most beautiful scroll-work of marble chimney-pieces, cornices of
rooms, and other enriched portions of both public and private structures,
are those in which the forms of shells have been taken for the patterns
of the artistic designs; and how tasteful and appropriate is the
employment of the shells themselves as ornaments for the mantle-piece,
side-board, and chiffonniere. Then too,

            “The rainbow-tinted shell, which lies
    Miles deep at bottom of the sea, hath all
    Colours of skies, and flowers, and gems, and plants.”

Not only has it grace and elegance of form, but it has also richness,
and delicacy, and variety of colouring. In some species the tints are
intensely vivid as the shifting lights of the aurora borealis, or the
glowing hues of an autumnal sunset; in others pale and delicate as the
first indications of coming morn, or the scarcely-perceptible tinge of a
just expanding flower-bud; in some the colours are arranged in patterns,
regularly disposed; in others, in masses and blotches, of varying shapes
and degrees of intensity; in some again they seem to change and melt one
into the other, like the prismatic hues of the rainbow. In all, whether
distinct and unconnected, or intimately blended, whether regular or
irregular, they are beautiful exceedingly. Nor is their beauty of an
evanescent, that is fading, or vanishing character; unlike plants and
animals, which when once dead, are extremely difficult of preservation.
Shells, being composed of particles already in natural combination, are
almost indestructible; unless exposed to the action of fire, or some
powerful acid, they will remain the same for ages, requiring no care or
attention, beyond occasionally removing the dust, which would collect
upon and defile their pearly whiteness, or obscure the brilliancy of
their colours.

So easily collected, arranged, and preserved, and withal so singular and
graceful in form, and rich and various of tint, one cannot wonder that
Shells have always had a conspicuous place in all museums, and other
collections of natural history objects; neither can we feel surprised
that a high value should have been set upon rare specimens; as much as
a thousand pounds it is said has been given for the first discovered
specimen of the _Venus Dione_; another shell called the _Conus cedo
nulli_, is valued at three hundred pounds; and the _Turbo scaloris_,
if large and perfect, is worth one hundred guineas; while the _Cypræa
aurantium_, or Orange Cowry, if it has not a hole beaten through it, will
fetch fifty guineas. It has been calculated that a complete collection of
British Conchology is worth its weight in silver.

The following quotation is from “The Young Conchologist,” by Miss
Roberts;—our readers will do well to peruse it attentively:—“We admit
that shells are beautiful, and that they are admirably adapted to the
exigencies of the wearers; but how shall we account for the endless
diversity of shades and colours, varying from the sober coating of the
garden snail, to the delicate and glowing tints which are diffused over
some of the finer species, in the infinite profusion of undulations,
clouds and spots, bands and reticulated figures, with which these
admirable architects enrich the walls of their beautiful receptacles. The
means of producing them must be sought for in the animals themselves.
Their necks are furnished with pores replete with colouring fluid, which
blends insensibly with the calcareous exudation already noticed, and
thus occasions that exquisite variety in their testaceous coverings,
which art attempts to emulate, but can never fully equal. Thus far is
the result of observation and experiment. It now remains to account for
the extraordinary fact that the stony exudations of testaceous animals
condense only on those parts where they are essential to their welfare.
But here investigation ends—the microscope has done its office. It
seems as if material nature delighted to baffle the wisdom of her sons,
and to say to the proud assertors of the sufficiency of human reason
for comprehending the mysteries of creation and of Providence, ‘Thus
far can you go, and no farther; even in the formation of a shell, or
its insignificant inhabitant, your arrogant pretensions are completely
humbled.’”


USES OF SHELLS.

In speaking of shells as ornaments, and objects worthy of our study and
admiration, we have already mentioned some of their uses, for surely that
which contributes to the intellectual improvement and innocent pleasure
of mankind, is in its degree useful. But on the more narrow ground of
utility, shells may also claim a high place in our estimation. To man in
a barbarous and uncivilized state, they furnish the means of performing
some of the most important operations of daily life, being extensively
used as a substitute for iron. The savage frequently forms his knife, his
hunting spear, and his fish-hook of hard shell. Lister relates that the
inhabitants of Nicaragua, in South America, fasten a shell, called the
_Ostrea virginica_, to a handle of wood, and use it as a spade. In North
America the natives use a blue and white belt composed of shells called
the _Venus mercenaria_, as a symbol of peace and unity, and there too
the gorget of the chieftain’s war-dress is composed of the pearl-bearing
mussel, called by naturalists _Mytilus margaritiferus_. Many African
tribes use the _Murex tritonis_ as a military horn, and a rare variety of
this shell, which has the volutions reversed, is held sacred, and used
only by the priests. Among the Friendly Islanders the Orange Cowry is a
symbol of the highest dignity. The Money Cowry, (_Cypræa moneta_,) forms
the current coin of many nations of Africa; and a certain number of these
shells strung together, are considered by the slave-hunting chiefs, as
an equivalent for so many black-skinned brothers, whom they sell into
hopeless bondage.

Among nations, too, in a high state of civilization, shells are often
used for economical as well as ornamental purposes. To say nothing of
mother-of-pearl, which is converted into so many articles useful as well
as pretty, scallop, or oyster shells, are frequently employed as scoops
by druggists, grocers, and the like; and in the country the dairy-maid,
with the larger kinds of the same shell, skims her milk, and slices her
butter; while sometimes by the poor people of both towns and villages,
the deeper specimens are converted into oil lamps. One very important
use, my young readers will understand, when I speak of a ragged urchin,
who shouts to every passer-by—‘Please remember the grotto!’

In ancient times, we are told, the people of Athens recorded their votes
on public occasions, by marks upon a shell, thus Pope says—

    “He whom ungrateful Athens would expel,
    At all times just, but when he signed the shell;”

in allusion to this custom, of which we are reminded by such English
words as _Attestation_, a certifying, a bearing witness; _Testify_, to
give evidence; _Testament_, a will, or written disposal of property,
etc.; all having their origin, it appears, in the Latin _testa_—a shell.
In ancient poetry we find the word _Testudo_ used to signify a musical
instrument, also called a lyre or lute, which instrument, according to
tradition, was first made by passing strings, and straining them tightly,
over the shell of a tortoise. So the poet Dryden, describing those who
listened to the music drawn from this simple invention, says—

    “Less than a God they thought there could not dwell,
        Within the hollow of that shell
            That spoke so sweetly.”

A Greek writer, called Apollodorus, gives this account of the invention
of music by the Egyptian god Hermes, more commonly known as Mercury. The
Nile having overflowed its banks, and laid under water the whole country
of Egypt, left, when it returned to its usual boundaries, various dead
animals on the land; among the rest was a tortoise, the flesh of which
being dried and wasted by the sun, nothing remained within the shell
except nerves and cartilages, or thin gristly bones; these being shrunk
and tightened by the heat, became sonorous, that is sounding. Against
this shell Mercury chanced to strike his foot, and pleased by the sound
caused thereby, examined the shell from which it came, and so got a
notion, as we say, how he might construct a musical instrument. The first
which he made was in the form of a tortoise, and strung with the dried
sinews of dead animals, even as are the lutes, harps, and fiddles of the
present day. This fanciful mode of accounting for the origin of music, is
thus alluded to by a writer named Brown:—

            “The lute was first devised
    In imitation of a tortoise’ back,
    Whose sinews parched by Apollo’s beams,
    Echoed about the concave of the shell;
    And seeing the shortest and smallest gave shrillest sound;
    They found out frets, whose sweet diversity
    Well touched by the skilful learned fingers,
    Roused so strange a multitude of chords.
    And the opinion many do confirm,
    Because _testudo_ signifies a lute.”

And now we are among the myths and fables of antiquity, we may just
mention another application of the shell to musical purposes. Neptune,
who, according to the Grecian mythology, was the god of the sea, is
frequently represented as going forth in his car in great state and pomp,
with a body-guard of Tritons; some of whom go before with twisted conch
shells as trumpets, with which we are to suppose they make delightful
harmony. Venus, too, the goddess of beauty, rode on the ocean foam in a
testaceous car. Thus Dryden says, that Albion—our native land, so called
on account of its chalky cliffs, from the Latin _alba_—white:—

    “Was to Neptune recommended;
    Peace and plenty spread the sails;
    Venus in her shell before him,
    From the sands in safety bore him.”

But without believing all these fables, more poetical than true, we may
soon convince ourselves that in the hollow chambers of a shell, there
does seem to dwell, like an imprisoned spirit, a low sad kind of music.
An English poet, named Walter Savage Lander, has well described this in
these lines—

                  “Of pearly hue
    Within, and they that lustre have imbibed
    In the sun’s palace porch, where, when unyoked,
    His chariot wheel stands midway in the wave;
    Shake one, and it awakens; then apply
    Its polished lips to your attentive ear,
    And it remembers its august abodes,
    And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there.”

Wordsworth, too, gives a beautiful description of a child applying one of
these pearly musical-boxes to his ear.

Many other uses of shells might be mentioned, to show that they perform
an important part in the operations of nature, as the means and modes
by and in which God sees fit to order the affairs of this world are
frequently called; and also promote the ends of science, and the arts of
every-day life. By the decomposition of the shells, of which they are
partly composed, solid rocks frequently crumble to pieces, and spreading
over a considerable surface, form a fruitful soil for the nourishment
of vegetation. The character of the testaceous deposits, too, enable
geologists, as those who study the nature and structure of the earth
are termed, to come to important conclusions on many points connected
with the subject of this investigation. And if we include, as the
subject of our book allows, the inhabitants of shells, how wide a field
of usefulness opens before us. How many thousands of our industrious
population depend wholly, or in part, upon the capture and sale of
shell-fish for their support. In some parts, as the western and northern
Islands of Scotland, they have in times of scarcity afforded sustenance
to the dwellers on the bleak and barren shores, who but for them must
have perished. But of all this we shall have more to say when we come
to describe the different members of the testaceous family. We will now
offer a few remarks upon


THE INHABITANTS OF SHELLS;

Which belonging to that division of Natural History called the
_Mollusca_, from the Latin _Mollis_—soft; these _Molluscous_ animals,
then, are animals having a soft body, and no internal skeleton. You may
be quite sure that a _Mollusk_ will never break its bones, because it has
none to break; it has a shell, however, which may be broken, at least in
some cases, for all _Mollusks_ have not snug habitations of the kind; but
wander about the watery or earthy world in which they live, quite naked;
such as the sea and land slugs, and some worms, leeches, etc.: but with
these we have nothing to do, our present subject including only a part of


MALACOLOGY,

another member of that queer ology family, deriving its name from two
Greek words signifying soft, and a discourse; hence it means a discourse
upon soft, or soft-bodied, animals, that is _mollusca_. It is only a part
then of _Malacology_ that we have to do with; that part which relates
to the shell-inhabiting mollusks, and strange creatures enough some
of these are. We will have a look at them presently; just now it will
be sufficient to observe that the _mollusca testacea_, or soft-bodied
animals, furnished with shells, possess the power of exuding, that is,
discharging from various parts of their bodies a sticky kind of fluid,
which mixing with the chalky matter collected from the water, and
becoming hard, forms, in process of time, the shelly covering which is at
once a dwelling and a defence for the inhabitant.

Miss Pratt, in her delightful book on “Common Things of the Sea Coast,”
observes of these shells that, “We gather up those which we find, and
looking at their structure would fain know something of the inmate of
such a dwelling. All nature proclaims the goodness of God. We hear that
the bird which wings its way over our heads has a song of joy; the bee
hums delightedly by us; and the little shrimp which darts in the clear
pool, seems full of merriment. Was the inmate of the shell less cared
for by its Maker? No doubt the little builder had some sense of joy, as
he framed from his own substance the house which excites our admiration.
Doubtless his existence, short and sluggish as it was, had its own
consciousness of pleasure; and obscure as is his history, and little
calculated as such a creature might seem to perform an important part
in the economy of creation, yet we know that he had a work to do, not
only for the living creatures of the sea, but for the well-being of man
himself.”


CLASSIFICATION OF SHELLS.

The great naturalist Linnæus divided shells into thirty-six genera,
each of which comprised a number of species; of these species somewhere
about two thousand five hundred have been described and classified; the
varieties, more or less distinct, are almost countless. Of shells found
on and about the British Isles, there are about five hundred and fifty
species, or, we should rather say were, for diligent enquirers into this
branch of Natural History, are almost daily adding to the number.

We have already seen that shells are sometimes called _Crystalline_,
and sometimes _Granular_, in accordance with certain peculiarities of
construction before mentioned: this is one mode of division; there are
several others made use of in different systems of arrangement, which
only a deeper study of the subject than can be here entered upon, would
enable one to understand; the plainest and most common, however, is that
which has reference to the form of the shell, which is one of these—

[Illustration:

  UNIVALVE.      BIVALVE.      MULTIVALVE.

  Whelk.         Mussel.       Barnacle.]

These words are derived from the Latin, _unus_—one, _bi_—two,
_multus_—many, and therefore it may at once be seen that they apply to
shells having one, two, or several pieces or divisions. Valve comes from
the Latin _valva_, and means a folding door, a lid, a piece moving on a
hinge, as the divisions in several of these shells do.

This order of arrangement is generally followed by those who make a
collection of shells for a cabinet; and to this we shall adhere as at
once the most simple and convenient, when we come to describe the several
species of testaceous mollusks. We will now say a few words on


TAKING AND PRESERVING SHELLS.

A diligent searcher along any beach or coast line, will be sure sometimes
to light upon curious and valuable specimens, and especially after
violent storms may such be sought for, with the greatest chance of
success, for the agitation of the waters will then have loosened them
from their natural beds and dwelling-places, and cast them on the shore.
Very frequently, however, they will be so beaten about and defaced, that
they will be comparatively valueless; if enveloped in tangled masses of
sea-weed, they are likely to be preserved from injury; and such heaps
of uprooted marine vegetation will often afford a rich harvest to the
young conchologist, who should always carefully examine them. Many of the
shells are so minute as scarcely to be seen with the naked eye, therefore
this search can scarcely be properly effected without the assistance of a
pocket lens, the cost of which is but trifling. The undersides of pieces
of stranded timber, the bottoms of boats lately returned from a fishing
voyage, the fisherman’s dredge or net, the cable, and the deep-sea
line; all these may prove productive, and should be looked to whenever
opportunity offers; nor should the search for land and fresh-water shells
be neglected, for many of these are very curious, as well as beautiful,
and no conchological collection is complete without them. For these, the
best hunting grounds are the ditch side and the river bed, the mossy
bank and the hedge-row; amid the twining, serpent-like roots of the old
thorn and elder trees; the crevices of the garden wall, the undersides of
stones, and all sorts of out-of-the-way holes, nooks, and corners, where
may be found the Striped Zebra, and other prettily-marked snail shells,
and many other kinds worthy of a place in—


THE CABINET;

which may be either large or small, plain or handsome, in accordance
with the means of the collector. Perhaps for a beginner just a nest of
shallow drawers in a deal or other case, may be quite sufficient; these
drawers should be divided into compartments, on the front side of each
of which should be pasted a neatly written label, with the common and
scientific name of the species of shell contained in it, together with
brief mention of the date when, and the place where, it was taken; and
any observations relating to it which can be comprised in a few words,
and may seem to the collector of sufficient interest to warrant their
insertion. This would be a good beginning; by and by, when the collection
is large, the knowledge more ample, and the outlay can be spared, it will
be time to think of something ornamental—mahogany and glass, and carved
or inlaid work, such a Cabinet as would properly display and enhance the
beauties of your testaceous treasures, which are too often stowed away,
with other natural curiosities, in a very disorderly, higgledy-piggledy
sort of manner, like the collection described by Dryden.

    “He furnishes his closet first, and fills
    The crowded shelves with rarities of shells;
    Adds orient pearls, which from the wave he drew,
    And all the sparkling stones of various hue.”

When live shells, as they are called, that is having the living fish
in them, are obtained, the best plan is to place them in spirits of
wine, this at once deprives the inhabitant of life, without injuring
the shell, which should then be placed in hot water for a time, the
body of the mollusk is thus rendered firm, and may be removed by means
of some pointed instrument; care should be taken to leave no portion of
animal matter within, or after a while it will become putrid and give
out a stain, which will show through and injure the delicate markings
of the shell; the surest, most expeditious, and least troublesome mode
of cleansing a shell, is to place it in an ant heap for a day or two;
the busy little insects will penetrate into its inmost cavities, and
remove hence all offending matter. There will be no difficulty in this
respect with the multivalve and bivalve kinds, which are only kept closed
by means of a set of muscles, which can be tightened or relaxed at the
pleasure of the animal within, and become powerless to keep the shell
closed as soon as that is dead. Great care must be taken to preserve
unbroken the smaller parts of these shells, such as the hinges or teeth,
as on the structure of these the scientific arrangement into genera
chiefly depends; the beard also, as it is called, and silky threads, must
not be removed, as these have much to do in determining the particular
species.

River and land shells are generally very thin and brittle, and must be
carefully handled; their colours are not usually so brilliant as those
of the marine species, but they form links in the testaceous chain, which
are necessary to a proper study and elucidation of conchology.

The most glowing and gorgeous of all shells are those brought from the
Tropical seas, and, excepting in a few rare instances, specimens of most
of these can be obtained at little cost from any dealer, or from sailors
returning from a voyage. If it is necessary to send either those, or
British shells, any distance, or to pack them away in a small compass,
the best plan is to wrap them separately in soft paper, place them in a
box, and then pour in sawdust, bran, or fine sand, very dry, until all
the open spaces are completely filled up.


ON CLEANING AND POLISHING SHELLS.

All shells, whether inhabited or not, when taken should be soaked for
a while in hot water, to remove the dirt which may adhere to them, and
dissolve the saline, that is salt, particles contained in the sea water;
they should then be thoroughly dried, and if, as is the case with many,
they naturally possess a good polish, they are at once fit for the
cabinet. Generally, however, it happens that when shells are dry, they
lose much of the peculiar brilliancy of hue, which they possess when seen
through the medium of the glistening water; to restore this, wash them
over with a thin solution of gum arabic, or white of egg; some collectors
use a varnish made of gum mastic, dissolved in spirits of wine; this is
perhaps preferable, as it is not affected by moisture. Many shells have
a very plain, dull, appearance, in consequence of being covered over
with a kind of skin called an epidermis, a word derived from the Greek,
and signifying the outer skin, sometimes called the cuticle. To remove
this, soak the shell in warm water for some time, and then rub it over
with a stiff brush until the covering is removed; should this be very
thick, it will be necessary to mix a little nitric acid with the water,
but this must be done very cautiously, for if too strong it will remove
all the lustre from the surface of the shell subjected to its influence.
Sometimes the file, and a substance called pumice stone has to be used,
but these are dangerous agents in inexperienced hands. The best polish
for the shell after the skin is removed, is a red earth called tripoli,
applied on a piece of soft leather.


FOSSIL SHELLS.

An eminent Geologist, named Dr. Mantell, has very beautifully and
poetically termed rocks “The Medals of Creation.” As on coins and
medals we see stamped enduring records of great historical events, so
upon the rocks are written by the finger of God, a history of some of
the mighty changes which the earth has undergone, and fossil shells are
among the plainest and most easily read of the characters or letters, in
which these truths are written. As Dr. Harvey, in his “Sea-side Book,”
observes, “Shelly-coated mollusca have existed in the waters of the sea
and in rivers, from a very early period of the world’s history, and
have left in its most stratified rocks and gravels abundance of their
shells preserved in a more perfect manner than the remains of most other
animals. Now as the species in the early rocks differ from those found
in later formations, quite as much as the latter from the mollusca of
our modern seas, the gradual change in the character of the embedded
shells marks a certain interval of time in the world’s history.” So we
see that these rocks are the leaves of a great book, written all over
with wonderful truths, and those who study such sciences as Geology and
Conchology, are enabled to read much that is there written.

Every fossil shell that such a student picks out of the chalk, or
limestone, is like a letter in the Alphabet of Creation; it has a
significance, or meaning, and a number of such put together, form as
it were, words and sentences, that can be made up into chapters, full
of instruction, aye, and of amusement too. The study may seem a little
dry at first, but never mind, go on, and you will soon be rewarded for
your diligence, by the wonders that will unfold themselves to your
understanding—the fresh and delightful views which you will obtain into
the wide universe, the new and enlarged ideas of the wisdom and goodness
of the Creator, and of the formation, habits, and connexion each with
each of his various creatures.

Properly to treat of fossil shells, would require a book of itself, and a
large book too; we can here but allude to the subject, as a part, and a
very important and interesting part of the study of Conchology; more will
be said about it in a volume which we purpose writing for this series, on
Rocks, and the petrified organic remains found in and about them.

    “Those relics of an older world, which tell
      Of changes slow or sudden, that have past
    Over the face of nature; fossil shell,
      Shark’s tooth, and bone of megatheran vast,
    Turned into stone, and so preserved to show
    Man of those things whereof he ought to know.”




BEAUTIFUL SHELLS.




UNIVALVES.


Gasteropoda is a name given by some naturalists to a very extensive
group of molluscous animals; the term is derived from two Greek words,
signifying stomach and foot;—it has reference to the kind of fleshy
foot which generally occupies the whole under side of the body, and by
the contraction and extension of the muscles of which, the creature is
enabled to glide, with a slow but steady motion, from place to place.
The Slug and the Snail are the commonest examples which can be adduced
of _gasteropods_; and one may tell by their slimy tracks, shining like
silver in the morning sunshine, that during the night, which is their
principal feeding time, they manage to get over a considerable extent of
ground, although “a snail’s gallop” is a proverbial expression for slow
motion; but it is astonishing how much work of any kind may be done if
one “keeps at it;” by doing this the Tortoise beat the Hare, illustrating
the truth of the proverb, that “slow and sure wins the race.” If you
watch a Snail travelling with its house upon its back, it does not seem
to make much way, and you are inclined to think that it will be long ere
it reaches the new settlement to which it appears journeying with bag
and baggage; but leave the spot for a while, and the chances are that on
your return, the “slow coach” will have got somewhere out of sight. Here
is a lesson for boys and girls; whatever you take in hand, don’t be in a
hurry, and if people say you are “slow,” think of the snail, and keep on!

[Illustration]

This, then, is a shelled mollusk of the third class, called
_Gasteropoda_, according to the system of the French naturalist Cuvier.
It has a distinct head, which, like the hinder part of the body, which
we may call a tail if we like, projects, when the creature is in motion,
considerably from the shell; it is also furnished with what we commonly
call horns, naturalists say _tentacles_, from the Latin _tento_—trying,
or essaying; with these the creature, as it were, feels its way; being
extremely sensitive; they answer the purpose of organs both of sight and
touch; put your finger slowly towards one of them, and you will observe
that, even before contact, it begins to retract, or draw in, as though
sensible of the approach of some opposing body, as it no doubt is. These
horns of the snail, then, are its feelers—eyes to the blind, fingers
to the fingerless; so God provides for his creatures all that may be
necessary for their existence, and compensates for the deprivation of one
sense or organ, by some admirable contrivance which meets the necessities
of the case.[1]

[1] It appears likely that the little knobs at the end of the snail’s
feelers, are, as some naturalists assert, in reality eyes; if so, we
were wrong in calling the creature blind. Yet is their position and
construction so different from organs of sight generally, that they serve
rather to strengthen than invalidate the above observations. The number
of the horns varies in different kinds of snails from two to six, and
some have none at all. These tentacles, when present, are always situated
above the mouth; some of them have the knobs at the base, others at the
sides; and it has been conjectured that they may be organs of smell, as
well as of sight and touch.


THE COMMON SNAIL

Is called by naturalists _Helix aspersa_, the generic name being
derived from a Greek word signifying spiral, and having reference to
the shape of the shell; the plural is _Helices_, a term applied to all
convoluted or twisted shells, which terminate in a point like a church
spire: a spiral-shelled fossil is called a _helicate_. The specific
name comes from the Latin _asper_—rough, whence also our English word
_asperity_—roughness, and several others. The _Helicidæ_, or _Helix_
family, is that which includes the land shell Snails and the naked Slugs,
and in this family there are several genera; they are distinguished from
the shelled water Snails, both sea and river, by having a different
breathing apparatus, and some other points of internal construction which
it is not necessary to describe here.

The Common Snail has a mouth, of which it makes good use, as market
gardeners well know, and yet this mouth is not furnished with teeth;
instead of these, the upper lip, which is of a horny texture, is what
is called _dentated_, from the Latin _dentus_—a tooth, that is, divided
or separated, so as to present somewhat the appearance of a row of
teeth in the jaw; this lip is of an arched form, and appears to be a
very serviceable kind of instrument to Mr. _Helix aspersa_, who, if
his character be not _aspersed_, is very destructive to all sorts of
greenery. The lower lip is divided only in the middle, where there is an
opening of some width: it is not horny, like the upper one.

Snails lay eggs, which are about the size of very small peas; they are
soft, and of a whitish colour. Being semi, that is, half, transparent, or
clear, their contents can be partly seen; and in those of a water Snail,
deposited against the side of a glass bottle, the young were detected
with partially formed shells upon their backs.

To shew how tenacious they are of life, it has been mentioned that Mr.
S. Simon, a Dublin merchant, had a collection of fossils and other
curiosities left him by his father; among these were some shells
of Snails, and _fifteen years_ after the collection came into his
possession, his son had the shells to play with, and placed them in a
basin of water, when lo! out came the slimy bodies and knobbed horns of
several of the _Gasteropods_, no doubt hungry enough after their long
sleep.

We all know that our Common Snails hybernate, or sleep through the
winter. As soon as the chills of autumn are felt, they seek out some snug
crevice in an old wall, or burrow in the earth, or congregate beneath
garden pots, roots of trees, thatched roofs, or in any hole or corner
that may be convenient, and then throwing a kind of temporary skin, like
a drum head, which naturalists call _operculum_, over the opening of
their shells, and sticking themselves fast to the sides of their refuge,
or to each other, they sleep away, careless of frosts and tempests.

A moist and rather warm state of the atmosphere seems most congenial to
the land Snails, some species of which are found in all countries, except
those where the most intense cold prevails. Generally speaking, they
do not like dry heat, and to escape from it will get under stones, and
into other cool places, from whence a shower brings them forth in such
numbers, the smaller species especially, as to lead to the popular belief
that it sometimes rains Snails.

These _Gasteropods_, although extremely injurious to vegetation, must
not be regarded as worse than useless, as they commonly are; besides
furnishing food for several wild, as well as domesticated, birds, they
are no doubt a nourishing article of diet for man. The Romans had their
_cochlearia_, where Snails were regularly fed and fattened for the table;
and the French at the present day their _escargotoires_, or Snailery, for
the same purpose; some of the Snails so kept, attain an immense size, as
well they may if fed, as by the Romans, on new wine and meal. Many poor
persons, especially those who are consumptive, might no doubt derive much
cheap sustenance and benefit from using the larger species of _Helicidæ_,
which might be collected from hedges and gardens as food. Why should they
not eat those as well as the marine mollusks, such as Oysters, Cockles,
Whelks, etc.

Snails have an extraordinary power of re-producing any part which may be
injured or cut off, even to the extent of the whole head, as has been
observed to be the case; the reparation of injury done to the shell
they can effect easily, as can all testaceous mollusks. Respecting the
construction of the shell it may be observed that it is produced in the
thickness of the mantle, or cloak-like covering which envelopes the body
of the animal; the formation commences at the small end or spire, and
gradually goes on, whorl upon whorl, as the still widening circles which
give the ridgy appearance to most univalves, are called. _Columella_,
or _pillar_, is the name given to the spire on which the cones are
rolled; this is sometimes solid, and sometimes hollow; when the latter,
the open end is called the _Umbilicus_, meaning the navel or centre.
The opening at the bottom, from which the animal issues, is the last
portion finished, and this is called the _aperture_, a Latin word adopted
into the English dictionary. Some of these _Helices_ are wide and flat,
even hollow and cup-like, with the whorls rising above the pillar—these
are called _discoid_ shells; others which are long and narrow, with
projecting spires, are termed _turbinated_ shells; the former being
more or less flat or disk-like, the latter twisted, whirling, like a
spinning-top, from the Latin _turbo_—a whirling, a turning round.

[Illustration: DISCOID.]

[Illustration: TURBINATED.]

If we take a Common Snail, and plunge it into boiling water, which will
instantly kill it, so that it can be removed from the shell, we shall
find the whole of that part of the body which was lodged in the upper
whorls, or spiral part of the shell, is covered with a thin membrane
or skin; this is called the _mantle_, and that portion of it which
corresponds with what we may consider as the back of the mollusk, and
which is considerably thickened, is termed the _collar_; here are
situated the glands, which secrete the colouring and other matter of
which the shell is mainly composed; although the substance called nacre,
or mother-of-pearl, is secreted in the thinner part of the mantle; it
is however from the collar that the growth or increase of the shell
proceeds. It is in accordance with certain variations in the shape and
disposition of this mantle and collar, that shells assume such very
different shapes. Sometimes the whorls or spiral ridges, are projected or
thrown far out, and this produces the _turbinated_ shell. Sometimes they
scarcely rise above each other, but rather spread towards the sides, and
then we have the _discoid_ shape. Generally speaking, the whorls of a
shell take a direction from left to right, but occasionally an opposite
one; they are then called sinistral, or left-handed shells: such are
not common. If one of the twisted shells be divided length-ways, it will
be seen that the inside of the whorls wind in an ascending direction,
round the _Columella_, or central column, as the spiral staircases in the
Crystal Palace.

But let us return to our Garden Snail, who has many near relatives in
Britain, several of which have beautifully-marked and convoluted shells,
as will be seen by a reference to our coloured illustrations, Plate I.
We will introduce them in due order. Fig. 1, the Banded Snail, (_Helix
nemoralis_,) from the Latin _nemus_—a wood or grove; the prettily-striped
shells of this species may be found in great plenty among the roots and
in the crevices of the rugged boles of old forest trees, as well as in
hedge-rows and in mossy banks, and other situations near woods. Fig. 2,
the Heath Snail, (_H. ericetorum_,) from _erica_, the Latin for heath;
a small species with brown bands, remarkable for its large _umbilicus_,
perforating the centre of the shell nearly through. Fig. 3, the Silky
Snail, (_H. sericea_,) from the Latin _sericus_—silk-like; the shell
of this species is covered with short slimy hairs, which give it a
glistening appearance. Fig. 4, the Stone Snail, (_H. lapicida_,) from
the Latin _lapis_—a stone: Linnæus called the species the Stone Cutter,
probably on account of its habit of frequenting stony places, and the
peculiar construction of the shell, which has a sharp edge running round
each whorl; it is commonly found lodged in the cavities of loose-lying
stones, but which it can scarcely be suspected of having hollowed out for
its own accommodation.

Fig. 5, the Elegant Cyclostome, (_Cyclostoma elegans_.) On turning to the
dictionary, we find that _cyclostomous_ means having a circular mouth.
This species is sometimes called _Turbo elegans_; the beautifully-marked
shells are often found in chalk-hills covered with brushwood. This
pretty mollusk has a curious mode of travelling; the under surface of
the foot, which is long, is divided by a deep fissure, into two narrow
strips, like ribbons; these take hold of whatever the creature may be
moving on alternately; one keeping fast hold while the other advances,
in like manner to fix itself, and drag the body forward. Fig. 6, the
Undulated Plekocheilos, (_P. undulatus_;) the Latin _plecto_—to twist or
twine, seems to be the root from which the generic name of this Snail
is derived; the specific name will be easily understood; to undulate,
is to flow like waves, and the lines on the shell it will be seen are
undulating. This is not a British species, but is introduced here to
give variety to the group; it is a West Indian Mollusk, and is found in
immense numbers in the forests of St. Vincent; it glues its eggs to the
leaves of a plant which holds water, and thus secures for them a damp
atmosphere at all times. And here we must conclude our chapter of Land
Snails, leaving unnoticed very many beautiful and interesting species,
both British and Foreign.

Many poets have alluded to the Snail, but we can only find room for a few
verses by Cowper:—

    To grass, or leaf, or fruit, or wall,
    The snail sticks close, nor fears to fall,
    As if he grew there, house and all
                                Together.

    Within that house secure he hides,
    When danger imminent betides
    Of storm, or other harm besides,
                                Of weather.

    Give but his horns the slightest touch,
    His self-collecting power is such,
    He shrinks into his house with much
                                Displeasure.

    Where’er he dwells, he dwells alone,
    Except himself has chattels none,
    Well satisfied to be his own
                                Whole treasure.

    Thus hermit-like, his life he leads,
    Nor partner of his banquet needs,
    And if he meets one only feeds
                                The faster.

    Who seeks him must be worse than blind,
    (He and his house are so combin’d,)
    If, finding it, he fails to find
                                Its master.


FRESH-WATER SHELLS.

Many of the following group of Fresh-water Shells, are remarkable for
elegance of form, and some for richness of colouring; hence, perhaps,
the scientific name applied to the family in which they are mostly
included—_Limnæidæ_, which, like _limn_—to paint, agrees with the French
_enluminer_. These mollusks are found in rivers, streams, ditches, and
moist marshy places. Like those which live wholly on land, they breathe
through lungs, and therefore cannot exist without air; which accounts for
their frequently coming to the surface, when under water. In brooks, as
well as in stagnant pools, which abound with aquatic plants, they may be
found in vast numbers, feeding upon the moist vegetation.

[Illustration]

The Common Limnea, (_L. stagnalis_,) is mostly an inhabitant of stagnant
waters, where it is often seen floating with the shell reversed, as in
a boat; this shell, like most of those of the Fresh-water Mollusks,
is thin, and easily broken; the shape it will be seen, is peculiarly
elegant, the spire being slender and pointed—very different from that
of the Spreading Limnea, called by naturalists, _L. auricularia_,
from _aurus_—the ear, to which the broad aperture, or opening of the
shell, may be compared; this resembles the other species in its habits.
The Horny Planorbis, in Latin _P. corneus_, from _cornu_—a horn. The
shape, you will see, is flat, the whorls rolling upon each other like
the folds of a bugle horn; this shape would be termed orbicular, from
_orbis_—a sphere, or circular body. This is the largest European species
of Fresh-water Shells so constructed; it is often found in deep clear
ditches, and yields a beautiful purple dye, which, however, soon becomes
dull, and changes; it cannot be fixed, and is therefore valueless. The
mouth of this shell in fine specimens, is tinged with pale violet or
lilac.

[Illustration]

There is another kind, the Keeled Planorbis, (_P. lurinatus_,) which
has the outer edge of the shell finely ridged, or keeled; it is very
small, and very plentiful in fresh-water, both running and stagnant;
where, too, is found the Common Physa, (_P. fontinalis_,) the latter word
meaning a spring or fountain. This little mollusk is a quick and active
traveller, it sometimes comes out of its shell, and throws itself about
in an extraordinary way, keeping fast hold by its foot; the generic name,
_Physa_, would seem to have reference to the round, smooth, delicate
shell, and to come from the same root as _Physalite_, which means a
topaz: the members of this genus are very numerous, being found nearly
all over the globe. The next belongs to the family _Auriculadæ_, or Ear
Shells. The Midas’ Ear, (_A. Midæ_;) this handsome shell is prized by
collectors; it comes from the East Indies. Midas, it is said, was one who
set himself up for a judge of music in the old fabulous times, and not
appreciating that of Apollo, was rewarded by the angry god with a pair of
ass’s ears.

[Illustration]

The Cone-shaped Melampus, (_M. corniformis_,) also an Ear Shell, is
found in the rivers of the Antilles Islands. It is a pretty shell; the
formation is much the same as that of many of the most highly-prized
varieties of Marine Shells; of these we shall have to speak presently.
_Melampodium_ in Latin, signifies a poisonous plant called Black
Helebore; in the Mythology, _Melampus_ was a great magician, who did all
sorts of wonderful things; but we cannot tell what relation there exists
between either the plant or the magician and this pretty cone shell. To
give variety to this group, we will now throw in a land species called
_Megaspira Ruschenbergiana_, about the origin of whose name we cannot
even hazard a guess; the termination of the generic name, you will see
is _spira_, and a glance at the shell will at once suggest a reason
for this; its long tapering spire consists of twenty-three closely-set
gradually increasing whorls. This is a rare shell, whose inhabitant has
not yet been described by naturalists; several of the marine species
closely resemble it in shape. Much more might be said about the Land and
Fresh-water Shells, but we must here leave them, having a wide field
before us, namely, the Sea or Marine _Testacea_, one of the most common
of which is

[Illustration]


THE WHELK,

A univalve shell inhabited by a gasteropod mollusk, or, we should rather
say, naturally so tenanted, for very frequently it is taken possession of
by the Soldier or Hermit Crab, which having no hard covering to protect
their soft plump bodies, are obliged to take lodgings where they can
get them, and generally prefer the Whelk shell, of which we here give a
figure.

[Illustration]

This is one of the commonest of our Marine Mollusks; it is called by
naturalists _Buccinum undatum_; the first, or generic term, being the
Latin for a trumpet, and the second, or specific name, meaning waved, or,
as we often say, undulated. So we call this the Waved Whelk; fishermen
term it the Conch, or the Buckie, and tell strange stories of its
ravenous appetite and murderous propensities; how, with its spiny tongue,
situated at the end of a long flexible proboscis or trunk, it drills a
hole in the shell of the Oyster, or other testacean, and sucks out the
contents; empty shells, so drilled, are frequently found on the shore,
and often, when the dredge is let down into an oyster bed, it comes up
time after time filled with Whelks, of which such numbers are sometimes
taken, that they are sold to the farmers to be used as manure for the
soil. This mollusk is a favourite article of food with the poorer classes
of our land, but it is hard and indigestible. The shell may frequently
be found in large numbers among the beach stones; it is strong and firm,
from three to four inches long, of a dirty yellowish white. There are
two other Whelks common upon our coasts—the Stone or Dog Whelk, (_B.
lapillus_,) from the Latin _lapis_—a stone, and _B. reticulatum_, so
called because the shell is _reticulated_, or marked with many lines
crossing each other, like net-work; it comes from the Latin _reticulum_—a
net; hence also we have _reticule_—a small work bag, at one time very
much carried by ladies.


ROCK SHELLS,

Are so called on account of their rough and wrinkled forms; they are
nearly allied to the Whelks, to which they bear a close resemblance.
Several species are found on our shores, the most common being the Humble
Murex, (_M. despectus_,) from the Latin _despecto_—to despise; this is
often used by the fishermen for bait. Some of the foreign Rock Shells
are very curious and beautiful; three of them will be found on Plate
II.—Figs. 1, 2, and 3. The Common Thorny Woodcock, (_M. tribulus_,)
from the French for trouble, whence we have also tribulation, which is
sometimes said to be a thorny path. This curious shell is also called
Venus’ Comb. It is found in the Indian Ocean, from whence it is also
brought. Fig. 2, the Woodcock’s Head, (_M. haustellum_,) from the Latin
_haustus_—a draught; the bill of the Woodcock being adapted for sucking.
This term is also applied to insects that live by suction. The shell, it
will be seen, is destitute of spines, but it is ribbed and beautifully
marked. Fig. 3 is worthy of its name—the Royal Murex, (_M. regius_,)
from _regno_—to reign. It is a splendid species, of the rich colouring
of which, art can give but a faint impression. It is brought from the
western coast of Central and South America, where, as well as in the
islands of the South Pacific, many new shells of the genus _Murex_ have
been discovered.

[Illustration]

One shell found on our own coast, often mistaken for a Whelk, is the
Pelican’s-foot Strombus, called in scientific language, _Strombus
pes-pelicanus_, which is but a Latinized form of the English name. This
shell varies greatly in shape in different stages of its growth, and by
an inexperienced conchologist, the young, middle-aged, and old Strombus,
might be taken for distinct species. In the _Strombidæ_ family, so called
we know not why, the same word in Latin meaning a kind of shell-fish,
are some species which have produced pearls. One member of the family
which we sometimes see in collections, is a large and very beautiful
shell; this is the Broad-winged Strombus, (_S. latissimus_,) probably
from _latesco_—to wax or grow broad, or large; _issimus_ being in the
superlative degree, would indicate that this shell was very much so, as
we find it is, sometimes measuring as much as twelve inches across. In
Plate II, is a representation of this handsome shell, greatly reduced
in size, of course: see Fig. 4. We here give a figure, as more curious
than beautiful, of the Scorpion Pteroceras, (_P. scorpius_,) which also
belongs to the _Strombidæ_ family; as does the curious Chinese Spindle,
(_Rostellaria rectirostris_.) The generic name of the first of these
species, comes from the Greek _Ptero_, pronounced _tero_, meaning a
wing, and _cerus_—waxen. Both the generic and specific names of the
second refer to the peculiar conformation of the shell, being derived
from the Latin, and meaning a straight line or beak.

[Illustration: CHINESE SPINDLE.]

On Plate III, will be found the Imbricated Purpurea, (_P. imbricata_,)
Fig. 1, which claims a close alliance with the Whelks. The generic name
has reference to the dye yielded by this, as well as all the shells
of the genus; the specific name comes from the Latin _imbrex_—the
gutter-tile; thus _imbricated_, a term often used in Natural History,
means ridged, like the roof of a house, where the tiles are placed to
overlap each other, so that the rain will run off. The Persian Purpura,
or, as it is called in Latin, _Purpura Persica_, Fig. 2, is another
handsome shell of this family group; its name indicates the place where
it is found. The other species described comes from South America, and
the _P. lapillus_, (the meaning of the specific name has already been
explained,) is common on our shores, being found in great abundance on
the rocks at low waiter. We read in scripture, of Tyrian purple, and
there is every reason to suppose that the rich colour was obtained from
these and other shell-fish.


PERIWINKLE.

[Illustration]

This is the commonest representative which we have of the family
_Turbinidæ_, which comprehends, according to Cuvier, all the species
which have the shell completely and regularly _turbinated_, that is, if
we translate the Latin word into English, twisted. The little Periwinkle,
(here he is,) is by no means a handsome mollusk, but some of his
relatives are very beautiful as we shall presently show. He is called
by naturalists _T. littoreus_, from _littoralis_—belonging to the shore,
and often eaten by boys and girls with great relish; but he is not very
digestible, and sometimes occasions dangerous disorders. The Swedish
peasants believe that when the Periwinkle crawls high upon the rocks, a
storm is brewing from the south; but Linnæus quotes a Norwegian author
to shew that according to popular belief, it foretells the approach of a
land wind with a calm on shore. Man may learn much of elemental changes
from an observation of the movements and habits of all living creatures,
which are instructed by God to provide for their safety and wants, and
often perceive, long before man himself does, the indications of calm
and tempest, rain and drought, etc. But our little _Turbo_, what of him?
will you boil him, and pick out his curled-up form with a pin? or let him
go crawling about the rocks, feeding upon the delicate earlier growth of
marine vegetation? In the former case, you will have to reject the little
kind of horny scale attached to his foot, which forms, when he retires
into his habitation, a closely-fitting door to make all snug.

Several species of this genus are found on our shores; one of those is
the _Turbo rudis_, or Red Turbo, which has a very thick periwinkle-like
shell, about three-quarters of an inch long; the colour is dull red,
fawn, or drab.

Of the foreign _Turbinæ_, sometimes called Turban Shells, we will now
introduce two or three species, which will be found on Plate III. Fig. 3
is the Marbled Turbo, (_T. marmoratus_,) from the Latin _marmor_—marble;
a large handsome shell well known to conchologists, and a native of the
Indian seas. Fig. 4 is the Twisted Turbo, (_T. torquatus_;) this shell,
when deprived of its outer coat or layer, is beautifully _nacreous_, or
if we may so speak, mother-of-pearly. The specimens which have reached
England were brought from King George’s Sound. Fig. 5 is called Cook’s
Turbo, (_T. Cookii_:) this is a handsome South Sea shell, oftentimes
of large size. It has been found in great numbers on the coast of New
Zealand.

On Plate IV, we have placed two very curiously formed and marked shells,
called Wentletraps, also belonging to the family _Turbinidæ_. The
scientific name is _Scalaria_, from the Latin _scala_—a ladder, which the
ribbed shells are supposed to resemble. Of this genus there are about
eighty distinct species known; they are mostly deep-sea shells found in
warm latitudes, although several inhabit the European seas, and one, the
Common False Wentletrap, (_S. communis_,) Fig. 1, may often be picked up
on our own shores. Fig. 2, the Royal Staircase Wentletrap, is a rare and
valuable shell, generally brought from India and China; the scientific
name is _S. pretiosa_, given to it by the French Naturalist Lamarck, on
account of the high price which it fetched, _pretiose_, in Latin, meaning
costly, valuable. As much as £100 have been given for a single specimen
of this shell; and a fine one, especially if it exceed two inches in
length, yet commands a considerable sum, although not nearly so much as
that. A good deal like the False Wentletrap in general outline, is the
Awl-shaped Turritella, found in the African and Indian Seas. This is the
_T. terebra_ of naturalists; the first name referring to the turret shape
common to the genus, and the last being the Latin word for an auger, or
piercer. The Roseate Turritella, (_T. rosea_,) is also sometimes seen in
collections; the beautiful rosy tint of the live shell changes to a dull
red or brown, on the death of the mollusk.


TROCHUS, OR TOP-SHELL.

“Of the shelled Mollusca which the dredge ever and anon brings up,”
says Mr. Gosse, in his delightful volume on the _Aquarium_, or
_Aqua-vivarium_, as the glass tank in which living marine animals
and vegetables are kept, is called, from the Latin _aqua_—water, and
_vivo_—to live, “the _Trochi_ are among the most conspicuous for beauty.
The chief glory of this genus is the richly-painted internal surface of
their shells, in which they are not excelled by any even of the true
margaritiferous or pearly bivalves.”

Of this _Trochidæ_ family, a few of the members must be introduced to
our readers; it is rather a numerous one, consisting of more than one
hundred species, which are scattered nearly all over the world, few
seas being without some of them. They are found at various depths, from
near the surface to forty-five fathoms down, creeping on rocks, sand,
masses of sea-weed, etc. We will first speak of those found on our own
shores, the two commonest, as well as the smallest of which, are the Grey
and the Spotted Trochi, scientifically named _T. cinerarius_ and _T.
maculata_, the translation of the first Latin specific name being ashy
or ash-coloured, and that of the second, spotted. _Trochus_, in the same
language signifies a top, and has reference to the shape of most of these
shells, which are something like a boy’s whip-top.

Children on the coast sometimes call the last-named of the above species
Pepper-and-salt Shells, because in colour they resemble the cloth so
named. The Muddy-red Trochus, (_T. ziziphinus_,) so called, perhaps,
because in colour it resembles the ziziphia, or fruit of the jujube tree,
is also common with us. This shell is about an inch long, of a grey tint
dashed with dark spots, these follow the line of the spiral turnings,
which are very regular, proceeding from the opening below to the apex or
point. Seen on shore, its colours are dull and faint, but beneath the
water, inhabited by a living mollusk, it looks as though made of pearl,
and studded with rubies; the animal, too, is richly coloured, being
yellow with black stripes.—See Plate IV, Fig. 3.

Not so common as the last is another British mollusk of this genus,
called the Granulated Trochus, (_T. granulatus_.) It is the larger, and,
as many think, the more elegant shell of the two, being in colour, a
faint flesh tint or yellowish white, shaded here and there with purple;
the spiral lines which encircle it are composed of small round knobs
which stand out like beads.

There is a singular shell of this genus, called the Carrier Trochus, (_T.
phorus_;) it is generally found loaded with foreign objects, such as
shells, small stones, bits of coral, etc., which it attaches to itself,
and so goes about like a collector of natural curiosities, with his
cabinet on his back.

The Imperial Trochus, (_T. imperialis_,) Fig. 4, whose scientific name
explains itself, is one of the handsomest shells of the genus; it is very
rare, and has hitherto been found only at New Zealand. Let us give our
young readers a specimen of the way in which scientific writers describe
shells; thus, this foreign Trochus, they tell us is “orbicularly conical,
the apex obtuse, the whorls turgidly convex, squamoso radiate at the
margin.” This is quite a simple affair to some descriptions, and simple
in fact it is to one, who, by attentive study, has become familiarized
with the meaning of the terms. To one also who is acquainted with the
Greek and Latin tongues, they will be sufficiently plain, although he
has never seen them applied before, for they are all derived from those
dead languages, as they are called, and so convey their own meaning
to every educated naturalist, no matter of what nation he may be; and
hence their chief value. It is not necessary for our readers to trouble
themselves about the meaning of such terms at present; by and by it will
be necessary for them to do so, if they wish to prosecute the study of
any natural science.

But about the Imperial Trochus, with its “orbicularly conical” shell—that
term we may explain as round and cone-like; a reference to Fig. 4, Plate
IV, will shew what is meant by this more clearly than words can, and
likewise exhibit the beautiful markings of this species, with its ground
tint of rich violet brown. This beauty is often obscured by calcarious
incrustations, and marine plants, shewing that the mollusk is sluggish in
its habits—a slothful creature. So it is with human beings, sloth covers
and hides the good qualities and virtues with an overgrowth at all times
difficult to remove, and oftentimes destructive of all that is fair and
good in the character.—Children, be not slothful! The Obelisk Trochus,
(_T. obeliscus_,) is a rare white and green shell, sometimes seen in
collections; it is of a conico-pyramidal form, not remarkable for beauty,
and is a native of the Indian seas.

Mr. Gosse speaks of the Tops and Winkles as among the most useful
inhabitants of the Aquarium; they mow down with their rasping tongues
the thick growth of _Confervæ_ which would otherwise spread like a green
curtain over the glass walls of the tank, and obstruct the view of its
inhabitants. Here is this author’s description of the beautiful piece of
mechanism by which this work is effected:—“The appearance and position
of the organ would surprise any one who searched for it for the first
time, and as it is easily found, and as Periwinkles are no rarities, let
me commend it to your examination. The easiest mode of extracting it,
supposing you are looking for _it_ alone, is to slit the thick muzzle
between the two tentacles, when the point of a needle will catch and
draw out what looks like a slender white thread, two inches or more in
length, one end of which is attached to the throat, and the other, which
is free, you will see coiled in a beautiful spiral manner, within the
cavity of the stomach.

By allowing this tiny thread to stretch itself on a plate of glass, which
is easily done by putting a drop of water on it first, which may then be
drained off and dried, you will find that it is in reality an excessively
delicate ribbon, of transparent cartilaginous substance or membrane, on
which are set spinous teeth of glassy texture and brilliancy. They are
perfectly regular, and arranged in three rows, of which the middle ones
are three-pointed, while on each of the outer rows a three-pointed tooth
alternates with a larger curved one, somewhat boat-like in form. All the
teeth project from the surface of the tongue on hooked curves, and all
point in the same direction.”

And with this curious piece of mechanism the little Winkle works away and
cuts down swathe after swathe of the minute vegetation, just as a mower
does the meadow grass; only the mollusk eats as he goes, and so gets
payment for his labour; the man has it in another and to him more useful
form. We might tell a very long story about these Tops and Winkles, which
are nearly related to each other, but must now pass on to describe the
rest of the shells on Plate IV, which are the Perspective Solarium, (_S.
perspectivum_,) Fig. 5, the generic name comes from _sol_—the sun, and
viewed perspectively, that is, in such a position that the whole top of
the shell is at once presented to the view, looking like a flat surface,
it presents a circular appearance, marked with rings and rays like
representations of the sun sometimes do.

The Variegated Solarium, (_S. variegatum_,) Fig. 6, is a small but very
pretty shell, somewhat rare. The mollusk is remarkable on account of the
singular shape of its operculum, which differs from that of all other
species; it is of a cone-shape, and covered from top to bottom with what
are called membranous lamellæ, that appear to stand out like little
shelves winding up spirally. This singular form of operculum has been
long known to naturalists, but it is not until lately that they have
discovered to what species of testacean it belonged. Let us here explain
that _operculus_ is the Latin for a cover or lid.


CONES, VOLUTES, MITRES, AND OLIVES.

These are names given by collectors to certain classes of univalve shells
distinguished by peculiarities of formation, more or less distinct. We
shall describe two or three of each, that our readers may have some idea
of the meaning of the terms which are often used by those who speak or
write on conchology.

The family of Cones, called _Conidæ_, is an extensive one, considerably
above two hundred species having been discovered. Many of them are very
beautiful both in shape and colour, so that they are highly valued by
collectors; they are principally found in the southern and tropical
seas, upon sandy bottoms, at depths varying from a few feet to seventeen
fathoms. The shells are generally thick and solid, rolled up, as it were,
into a conical form; the most familiar illustration that can be given of
this form is a sugar-loaf, which all these shells more or less resemble
in general outline, as thus—

[Illustration]

Cones are either plain or coronated, that is, crowned, having rows of
projections round the top of the shell, like the second of the above
figures; and this forms a mark of division into two classes, although
these classes often run, as it were, one into the other; some plain cones
having slight irregularities of surface, and some crowned ones being very
nearly plain.

The Common, or Ordinary Cone, (_Conus generalis_,) Plate V. Fig. 1, is an
elegantly-shaped and beautifully-marked shell, having much the appearance
of being carved out of some rare kind of marble. The Lettered Cone,
(_Conus littoralis_,) Fig. 2, appears to be scribbled over with Hebrew,
Greek, or Arabic characters, and almost every species has something
peculiar in its markings; clouds and veins, and dots, and stripes, and
bands, of every conceivable shape and mode of arrangement, may be met
with in these shells, whose surface, when the epidermis, or outer skin
is removed, bears a beautiful polish. Curious names have been given to
some of them, such, for instance, as the High Admiral, Vice Admiral, and
Guinea Admiral, which indicate the rank they hold in the estimation of
collectors. From five to twenty guineas is the price at which good and
rare ones have been valued, and one, the _Conus cedo nulli_, which may
be translated, the Cone second to none, has fetched the enormous sum of
three hundred guineas. It must not be supposed that these shells exhibit
all their beauties when, inhabited by a carnivorous, or flesh-eating
mollusk, they move slowly about, or lie for a time motionless among
the rocks and sand-beds of the ocean. The before-mentioned epidermis,
which is the Latin for the outer skin of the human body, covers them
like a cloak or mantle, which is the name it bears among naturalists.
Much careful labour is required to bring them to a fit state for cabinet
shells.

VOLUTES form an extensive family of shells under the name _Volutinæ_. The
greater part are natives of tropical seas, and dwell far down so that
they are seldom found on the coast, except after storms. There are a few
European species, but these are not remarkable for beauty, as most of
the others are. The generic name signifies twisted, or rather wreathed,
as flowers or leaves might be, about some central object. In these
shells the spire is generally short, as it is in many cones, sometimes
scarcely apparent; the form is usually elegant, and the markings often
striking and handsome. On Plate V, will be found three examples—Fig. 3
is the Undulated Volute, (_V. undulata_,) the Latin for a little wave
is _undula_, and these marks are like the lines caused by the flowing
of the waves on a sandy shore: this shell is found chiefly in the South
Pacific; the animal which inhabits it is prettily-marked with zebra-like
stripes. Fig. 4 is called the Pacific Volute, (_V. Pacificus_;) the
shape, it will be seen, is somewhat different, being more angular, and it
is without the waved lines. Fig. 5, the Bat Volute, (_V. vespertilio_,)
is more decidedly knobbed or spiked, approaching nearly to the shape of
some of the coronated ones. This species is found in the Indian seas; the
specific name is the Latin for a bat.

MITRES; these are usually considered as a genus, or branch of the
Volute family; the scientific name is _mitra_, the form is generally
long, slender, and pointed—something like the bishop’s mitre, hence the
common name of the genus. In the Episcopal Mitre, (_M. episcopalis_,)
Plate VI, Fig. 1, we see this form in its greatest perfection; this is a
handsome shell found in the Indian seas, and on the coasts of the South
Sea Islands. The mollusk is remarkable for a long proboscis, double the
length of the shell, the extremity of which swells into a club form, and
has an oval orifice or opening: the specific name _episcopalis_, comes
from the Latin, and means of, or like a bishop. The Tanned Mitre, (_M.
adusta_,) from the Latin _adustus_—burned or parched, is, what is called
fusiform and turretted, that is, shaped like a spindle, and having a
spire or turret-like termination. The streaks of colour are transverse,
that is, running the length of the shell, or in other words, they are
longitudinal; this, too, comes from the South Sea Islands. Fig. 2 is the
Wrinkled Mitre, (_M. corrugata_,) from the Latin _corrugo_—to wrinkle; it
is very different both in shape and markings, from the last species; the
whorls, it will be seen, are angulated or pointed above, and the lower
part of the shell is much larger than the spiral or upper portion. It is
a true mitre nevertheless, although not just such a one as a bishop would
like to wear. It inhabits the Indian Ocean, the coast of New Guinea, etc.

OLIVES; these, for richness of colour and brilliancy of effect, will
bear comparison with any genus of shells. Naturalists speak of them
collectively as _Olivinæ_; they belong to the Volute family, and are said
to number about eighty species. Most of those which have reached this
country, have come from the Mauritius, where they catch them with lines
baited with portions of Cuttle-fish. We have here depicted two of them,
namely, the Figured Olive, Fig. 3, (_Oliva textilina_,) from the Latin
_textilus_, which is woven or plaited; and the Ruddy Olive, Fig. 4, (_O.
sanguinolenta_,) from _sanguis_—blood.

We must now bring our notice of the Univalves to a conclusion; there are
several genera, and many very curious and beautiful species which we have
been unable to notice at all, and of those which we have, a short account
only could be given; sufficient however, as we trust, to interest our
readers in the subject, and induce them to continue the study of it into
larger works. Before leaving this division of shells, we would call their
attention to one of its greatest ornaments, that is the Ventricose Harp
Shell, (_Harpa ventricosa_,) from the Latin _ventriculus_—the stomach,
applied to this shell on account of its swelled or inflated shape.
Nothing, however, can be more elegant than the whole form, nor more
beautiful than the markings of this lovely species, (see Plate VI, Fig.
5,) which belongs properly to the Whelk family.


COWRIES.

Of Cowries we have already spoken in our chapter on the Uses of Shells,
they are among the commonest of our testaceous ornaments, and are
remarkable, especially the foreign kinds, for richness and diversity of
colour, and the high polish which they bear. The native species are small
plain shells, commonly called Pigs, from some real or fancied resemblance
which they bear to the swine; they are pretty little white-ribbed shells,
and are tolerably plentiful on various parts of the British coasts. There
are three kinds, namely, the Louse Pig, or Nun Cowry, the Flesh-coloured,
and European Pig Cowries. The first of these is of a pale reddish colour,
with six square black spots on the back; the second is a beautiful rose
tint; and the third is ash-coloured or pinkish, with three black dots,
and a white streak down the back. The Money Cowry, (_Cypræa moneta_,)
used as current coin in many parts of India, as well as on the coast of
Guinea, is a yellow and white shell, with a single band of the former
colour; it is small of size, and is sometimes called the Trussed Chicken,
for the same reason as the term Pigs is applied to its British relatives.
These Cowries are obtained principally about the Phillippine Islands,
the Maldive Islands, and the coast of Congo, where, after high tides,
the women collect them in baskets mixed with sand, from which they are
afterwards separated and cleaned, when they are ready for the market.

They are only useful as coin so long as they remain unbroken. The value
of a single shell is very small, as the following table will shew:—Four
Cowries make one gunder; twenty Gunders one punn; four Punns one anna;
four Annas one cahaun; and four Cahauns one rupee. The value of the
latter coin is equal to two shillings and threepence, English money,
and this would be exchangeable for five thousand one hundred and twenty
Cowries; so that it would never do to pay large sums in this kind of
coin: a waggon would be required to convey a few pounds with. In this
country the Money Cowries are frequently used as markers or counters in
social games; they are generally white, in shape rather broad and flat,
being much spread out round the edges, which are slightly puckered, like
frills. Here are two figures of the shell, exhibiting the back and front
view.

[Illustration]

On Plate VII, will be found a group of other Foreign Cowries, most
of which will be recognized as familiar ornaments of the mantel and
side-board. Fig. 1 is the Spotted or Leopard Cowry, sometimes also
called the Tiger Cowry, (_C. tigris_,) which, in the earlier stages of
its growth, is simply marked with broad bands of lighter colour across
the shell. Fig. 2, the Map Cowry, (_C. mappa_,) curiously marked and
shaded, so as to resemble a coloured map; there are several varieties of
this beautiful shell, such as the rosy and dark variety from the Pearl
Islands, in the Indian Ocean; the Citron and Dwarf Rich-mouthed variety,
from the Mauritius. Fig. 3, the Mole Cowry, (_C. talpa_,) the last word
being the Latin for a mole, is of a more slender form than most other
species of the _Cypræidæ_ family, so called on account of their beauty,
_Cyprea_ being a name of Venus, the goddess of beauty. Any one who has
seen a mole, must be struck with the resemblance of its general outline
to this shell, of which there is a darker-coloured variety of somewhat
stouter form, called _exustus_—burned or scorched. Of the Poached-egg
Cowries there are several species, the most common is called by
naturalists _Ovulum ovum_, Fig. 4, from _ovum_—an egg; the back of this
shell is much elevated and rounded; it is smooth and white; the inside
is orange brown. Some of the Poached-egg group are of a more slender and
angular shape, as, for instance, that called the Gibbous, (_O. Gibbosa_;)
the moon when more than half-full, is called gibbous, that is rounded
unequally, as this shell.

[Illustration]

Few shells undergo greater changes, both of shape and colour, during
the process of growth, than the Cowries, which are called in France
Porcelaines, on account of their high polish and brilliant hues; a single
species in different stages of development, might well be, and often is,
taken for distinct shells. Much might be said about the Mollusks which
inhabit them, but our present subject has rather to do with their outer
covering than their internal structure. The most rare and valuable,
if not the most beautiful of these Cowries, is the _C. aurora_, or
_aurantium_, Morning-dawn, or Orange Cowry, a perfect specimen of which
has been sold for fifty guineas. There is a very curious shell called
the Common Weaver’s Shuttle, (_Oculum volva_,) generally included in the
_Cyprea_ family; of this a representation will be found on Plate VII,
Fig. 5. This is brought from China.




BIVALVES.


Acephalous Mollusks, with Bivalve Shells, is the name given by modern
naturalists to the class of animals of which we have now to speak; the
only one of these terms which will require explanation is the first; it
comes from the Greek, and means headless, so an Acephalan is a molluscous
animal without a head, as


THE OYSTER,

Which may be considered as the King of Bivalves; his palace, to be sure,
is somewhat rough and rugged outside, but within, its walls are smooth
and polished, lustrous and iridescent, and altogether beautiful; of a
nacrous or pearly appearance, now flushing into a rose tint, now fading
into pure white, and adorned sometimes with goodly pearls of price; truly
this monarch of the _Conchifers_ has a habitation worthy of a prince,
wherein he lives in right royal state. Our readers may smile perhaps at
the idea of the solitary Oyster doing this, down there on his mud bank
or rocky anchorage ground, shut up in his dirty-looking shells, and
holding, as it seems, commune with no one, not even his fellow mollusks;
how can he be said to live in royal state, or indeed any state at all,
except in a most weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable one? And this only
shews how erroneously those often judge who do so hastily, and from first
appearances.

If we take a peep through a microscope, under the direction of a
naturalist named Rymer Jones, we shall see that “the shell of an Oyster
is a world occupied by an innumerable quantity of animals, compared
to which the Oyster itself is a colossus. The liquid enclosed between
the shell of the Oyster contains a multitude of embryos, covered with
transparent scales, which swim with ease; a hundred and twenty of these
embryos, placed side by side, would make an inch in breadth. This liquid
contains besides, a great variety of animalculæ, five hundred times less
in size, which give out a phosphoric light. Yet these are not the only
inhabitants of this dwelling—there are also three distinct species of
worms.”

Let us see if there are any hard names here that want explaining before
we go any further. The first we stumble upon is _Colossus_, which comes
from the Latin, and means a great image or statue, like that which
ancient historians tell us once bestrode the entrance to the harbour of
Rhodes. _Embryo_ comes from the Greek, and means something small and
unfinished, that is to expand or grow into a more perfect form, as the
seed into a plant. _Animalculæ_, are minute or very small animals, such
as cannot be distinguished without the help of a microscope, hence they
are sometimes called microscopic animals; this word comes from the Latin
_animalis_, which means having life. _Phosphoric_ signifies luminous,
or giving out light. The Greek name of the morning star is _Phospha_.
In Latin, _Phosphorus_ is a term applied to a substance which chemists
extract from bones and other animal matter, and which, when exposed to
air, burns with a pale blue light, like that emitted by the glow-worm.
Many of the oceanic or sea animalculæ are exceedingly phosphorescent, so
that by night, the waves appear like billows of flame. Of this luminosity
of the ocean, as it is termed, we shall have to speak on another
occasion. We will now return to the Oyster, who, it will be seen, is by
no means so solitary in his bivalve palace as might be supposed. He has
his torch-bearers, and other attendants, quite a host of them, no doubt
magnificently dressed, if we could but see them to advantage, and well
instructed in the several duties which they have to perform. Oh yes,
certainly, as the Irish poet has said,

    “Of all the Conchiferous shell-fish,
      The Oyster _is_ surely the King;”

Shall we continue the quotation? and say

    “Arrah Mick, call the people who sell fish,
      And tell them a dozen to bring:
    For it’s I that intend to demonstrate,
      The creature’s phenomena strange,
    Its functions to set every one straight,
      And exhibit their structure and range.”

Scarcely will our limited space permit us to do this, but a few of the
most remarkable particulars about this common Acephalan, we feel called
upon to set before our readers.

First, then, it belongs to the class _Conchifera_; this is a word which
we must stop to examine a little; it seems to come from the Latin
_concha_, which means a shell-fish with two shells, in other words a
bivalve mollusk. Second, our Oyster belongs to the class _Pectinidæ_.
Now _pecten_ is the Latin for a comb, and this class includes those
bivalve shells whose edges are toothed, or, as it is said, _pectinated_;
in the scallop and the cockle shells this peculiarity is more observable
than in those of other members of the class, and these form the
typical, or so to speak, pattern genus, _pecten_. Thirdly, the Common
Oyster is a _Monomyarian Conchifer_. Ah! that’s something like a name
for the acephaloid monarch! Look at these two words, _mono-myarian_,
_di-myarian_, you know of course that mony-syllable means one syllable,
and dis-syllable means two. You sometimes hear of a person who leads
a _monotonous_ life, and you think perhaps of the Oyster shut up in
his shell all alone, _one_ by himself; this notion you now know to be
a false one; although it is true that he has but one abductor muscle,
and therefore belongs to the division of the _Pectinidæ_ family called
_Monomyaria_, while the Pearl Oyster has two, and therefore belongs to
that termed _Dimyaria_. If, as they say, there is reason in the roasting
of eggs, surely there must be in the names given to the classes and
divisions of shells. We hope to have succeeded in making the why and the
wherefore in this case somewhat plain;—_one_—_two_—and away we go out
of this maze of hard names. But what about the abductor muscle, above
spoken of? well, this must be explained; _abduce_, coming from the Latin
_abduco_, means to separate, to draw away, hence we have _abduction_.
During the life of an Oyster, the usual and natural state of the shell
is that of being kept open for a little distance, to allow the water
necessary for its nourishment and respiration to flow in and out; but
as a security against danger, it was necessary to furnish the animal
with the means of rapidly closing the shell, and retaining the valves
in a closed state. These actions being only occasional, yet requiring
considerable force, are effected by means of a muscular power, for which
purpose one or two, or sometimes more strong muscles are placed between
the valves, their fibres passing directly across from the inner surface
of one to that of the other, and firmly attached to both, and these are
called the abductor muscles, because their office is to draw or pull;
how strongly they do this those whose business it is to open Oysters can
best tell; if the animal within were not alive, the process would not be
a difficult one, as in that case the muscles would be relaxed, and the
shell would come open of itself, so that actually people who eat Oysters
directly they are opened, swallow them “all alive-O!”

If a pair of the shells from which the delicious morsel has been
extracted, be taken in the hand, it may be noticed that one is much
thinner, smoother, and flatter than the other; this is the side most
exposed to the action of the water; the rougher and rounder side is that
which is attached to the rock, or other substance to which the animal
forms an attachment, that is usually life-long. The two portions of the
shell are joined together by a hinge of curious workmanship, which is
formed of the inner layer of the shell, and strengthened by a ligament
which is wonderfully elastic; when the shell is drawn together by the
abductor muscles, the ligament is at full stretch, and as soon as they
relax at all, it contracts, and causes the shell to gape. This process is
repeated as often as may be necessary for the safety and sustenance of
the animal within, whose mouth is situated at the narrowest part of its
habitation, namely, near the joint of the hinge, which connects its upper
and under shell. The anatomical structure of the Oyster is more perfect
than would be supposed, from its apparently low state of organization;
it has a heart, liver, and intestinal canal, and a bag near the mouth,
which answers the purpose of a stomach. Its breathing organs are gills,
closely resembling those of most other fish; it has little vessels which
convey the bile from the stomach to the liver, and may perhaps be subject
to bilious attacks, as well as those who swallow this curious piece
of organization at a mouthful, without thinking at all of the goodly
structure they are demolishing. There is the tiny heart with its series
of blood-vessels, just as perfect as in the larger animals. There are
the nerves in the shape of minute feelers, which appear to be acutely
sensible not only of actual contact with foreign bodies, but also of
sounds and movements from without. A very nice sense of feeling appears
to reside in what is called the beard, in scientific language _bissus_;
this is a kind of double fringe to the two lobes of the mantle, or sac,
as it is called, which envelopes the body of the animal, and floats free
from the shell, except just at the part nearer the valve where it is
attached.

We have just spoken of the beard of the Oyster, and this reminds us of
a conundrum which may serve to amuse our readers, and enliven these dry
details a little. Why is an Oyster the most anomalous, that is strange,
contradictory, creature in existence? Do you give it up? Well then it is
because

    “It wears a beard without any chin,
    And leaves its bed to be tucked in.”

Again, by this allusion to the “tucking in” of Oysters, a phrase more
expressive than polite, we have recalled to memory the saying of a quaint
old author, that they are “ungodly, uncharitable, and unprofitable meat;
ungodly, because they are eaten without grace; uncharitable, because they
leave nothing but shells, and unprofitable because they must swim in
wine.” Not, generally, however, are they eaten in this luxurious manner,
a little pepper and vinegar is all they commonly get in the way of sauce,
and those who swallow them thus accompanied, seem to do so with infinite
relish. A very long chapter, if not a whole book, might be written about
the historical associations of Oysters, for which our country has been
famous, as far back as the time of the first Roman invasion; much, too,
might be said about the Oyster beds and fisheries, which give employment
to thousands of our industrious population, but all this has so little
to do with natural history, that we can find no excuse for dwelling upon
it here. It is quite within the range of our subject, however, to state
that the “spat” or “spawn” of the Oyster is cast about the beginning of
May: at first it resembles a drop of greenish tallow, but by the aid of
the microscope it may be seen to consist of a great number of minute
particles, each of which is an egg, and will by-and-by become a perfect
fish; these increase in size very rapidly, and after floating about for
a while, sink to the bottom, and become attached to rock or some other
substance, in which position, if not violently detached or removed, they
complete their growth, and live out the term of their natural life. Their
food is minute animalculæ, and microscopic vegetation, on the nature of
which their flavour greatly depends.

They have many enemies besides man; the whelk, and the crab, the
sea-star, or “five fingers,” and the large drum-fish, which swallows
them almost by the bushel, shells and all; these help to thin the
Oyster-beds, and make the dredger’s labours less remunerative than
they would otherwise be. Here is a picture of one as he stands in his
boat just about to throw his dredge into the sandy bottom, where he
knows the delicious testaceans do, or ought to, lie most thickly. The
dredge, which is a triangular iron frame with a net over the bottom,
will naturally sink, and when the line to which it is attached ceases
to run out, the dredger will put his boat in motion, and draw it thus
over the Oyster-bed, and then pull it up filled, it may be, with little
fat “Miltons,” or large “Colchesters,” or such other kind as the spot is
known to yield.

[Illustration]

The Latin for Oyster is _Ostrea_, and that is a name given to a genus
of the _Pectinidæ_ family, comprising beside the _O. edulis_, or Common
Oyster, many other species. _Edulis_ means eatable. Home naturalists
divide these Ostraceans into two groups, first with simple or undulated,
but not plaited valves; second, those which have the borders of their
valves distinctly plaited.

To the first group belong the Common Oyster, and between thirty and forty
other living species which are found principally in warm and temperate
latitudes. In the Polar ocean none have been discovered, and in the
hotter climates they are most abundant, being found in large beds or
banks near the coast, and often attached to rocks and even to trees which
grow by the water, so that the accounts of some old travellers who stated
that they saw Oysters growing upon trees, were not so false as many
supposed them.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

The annexed figure is that of the Cock’s-comb Oyster, _Ostrea
Crista-Galli_, a native of the Indian Seas, and a very remarkable shell,
on account of its crooked or deeply indented form; the specific name
means cock’s-crest. The Chinese Window Oyster, called _Placuna Placenta_,
which we may, if we like, translate into a pleasant or agreeable cake;
the shell, it will be seen, is round like a cake, and its smoothness
and regularity of form render it agreeable to look upon; this species
too comes from the Indian Seas, where it is taken on sandy bottoms. The
American Spiny Oyster, or _Spondylus Americanus_, brings us into another
family, that of the Water Clams, called by naturalists _Spondylidæ_; with
the spines stuck out every way, and no way in particular, it looks like a
head of hair greatly in need of the assistance of one of its _pectinated_
relatives. The specific name of this curious shell explains itself; the
generic name comes from the Latin _Spondylis_—a kind of serpent.

[Illustration]

Passing over the family _Malleidæ_, or Hammer Oysters, we come to the
_Meleagrinidæ_, or Pearl Oysters, of which Fig. 1, Plate VIII, is an
example, this is the _M. Margaritifera_ of naturalists, the mollusk
in whose shells pearls are chiefly found. Here are two long words;
_Meleagris_ is the Latin for a Guinea or Turkey Hen, to the markings of
whose plumage naturalists might have imagined the shells of this genus
bore some resemblance. There was, says the mythology, a celebrated hero
of antiquity named Meleaga, but we can hardly suppose that there is any
association between his name and that of a genus of Oysters, of which
edible we read the ancients were very fond, and they are said to have had
a fancy not only for the mollusk itself, but also for the pearls found
in its shell, which at their luxurious banquets they dissolved in wine,
to make the draughts richer, or at all events more expensive; and this
brings us to the specific name of the Pearl Oyster, _Margaritifera_,
which comes from the Latin _Margarita_—a pearl; the French use this word
slightly altered in the spelling, thus _Marguerite_ for both a daisy, and


A PEARL.

This jewel, so highly valued for its chaste beauty, is but a secretion of
animal matter, resulting from the efforts of some uneasy mollusk, annoyed
by a foreign substance, which has found its way into his habitation, to
make the best of an unavoidable evil by enclosing it in a soft smooth
covering. Let us imitate the Oyster, and when annoyed or afflicted,
by meekness and patience, and christian charity, strive to turn our
vexations and troubles into “pearls of great price,” and “goodly pearls,”
like those mentioned in scripture.

It is on the north-west coast of the Island of Ceylon, in the Indian
Ocean, that the Pearl Oyster most abounds, and there it is that the Pearl
fishery is conducted in the most extensive, systematic, and successful
manner; this fishing commences at the beginning of March, and upwards
of two hundred boats are usually employed in it; in each of these boats
are ten divers, who go down to the Oyster-beds, five at a time, and so
relieve each other; there are besides thirteen other men who manage the
boat, and attend to the divers. Altogether it is computed that from
fifty to sixty thousand persons, in some way engaged in the fishery,
or preparation, or sale of the pearls, assemble at and near the scene
of operations, which must be indeed a busy one. The number of Oysters
taken during the period of the fishing, which is about a month, must be
prodigious. One boat has been known to bring on shore, in the day, as
many as thirty-three thousand; they are placed in heaps, and allowed
to remain until they become putrid, when they undergo a very elaborate
process of washing and separating from the shells, which are carefully
examined and deprived of their pearly treasures. The stench arising from
the decomposed animal matter is described as horrible, and the whole
process filthy and loathsome in the extreme; yet out of the slime and
mud and disgusting effluvia, come every year gems of inestimable value,
calculated to adorn the brow of beauty, and form ornaments the most pure
and delicate that can be imagined. For the exclusive right of fishing
on the banks of Ceylon, for a single season, as much as £120,000 have
been paid to the English government by one person, who sublets boats to
others. Pearls vary greatly in value according to their colour and size;
those which are perfectly white are the most valuable; next to these
are those which have a yellowish tinge; the smallest kind, used for
various ornamental purposes, are called seed pearls, the refuse is made
into a kind of confection called _chimum_, highly relished by Chinese
epicures. A single Oyster will sometimes contain several pearls, which
are generally embedded in the body of the animal, but are sometimes fixed
to the shell; it is recorded of one rich mollusk, that there were found
in his possession no less than one hundred and fifty precious jewels; he
must have been a miser, or perhaps he had taken them in pledge from his
less provident neighbours.

From the earliest time, pearls have been considered as valuable
ornaments; they are mentioned in the book of Job, (see chap. xxviii,
verse 18th.,) and are often alluded to by Greek and Roman writers.
Various attempts have been made to imitate them, and one mode of
producing them, practised, it is said, more than a thousand years ago,
is still carried on in China. In the shells of Pearl Oysters, holes are
bored, into which pieces of iron are introduced; these wounding and
irritating the animal, cause it to deposit coat upon coat of pearly
matter over the wounded part, and so the pearl is formed. Artificial
pearls are made of hollow glass globules or little globes, covered on
the inside with a liquid called pearl-essence, and filled up with white
wax. Historians speak of an ancient traffic in native pearls carried on
by this country; and in modern times, British pearls of considerable
value have been discovered, one not many years since, by a gentleman who
was eating oysters at Winchester, was valued at two hundred guineas.
Generally, however, the pearls of this country are inferior in the two
requisites of colour and size.

Interesting accounts of Pearls and Pearl-fishing, will be found in “the
Penny,” and “Saturday Magazines,” and many other works easy of access.
There our young readers may learn of the perils and dangers to which the
poor divers are exposed from the voracious sharks, which hover about the
fishing grounds, and make a dash at their victim, heedless of the written
charms, with which the priest or shark-charmer has provided him previous
to his descent, and of much more than we can find space here to tell. All
we can now do is to give the portrait, as drawn by Thomas Hood, of a lady
who takes up her abode in all the pearl-producing bivalves, and who is
therefore, perhaps on this account, called

[Illustration: THE MOTHER OF PEARL.]


THE MUSSEL AND THE COCKLE.

It is in the _Dimyaria_ division of the _Conchifera_ that we must
look for these familiar bivalves, the Mussel, or, as it is sometimes
spelled, Muscle, and the Cockle; the former called in scientific language
_Mytilus_, which in Latin means simply a shell-fish, and the latter
_Cardium_, which may have reference to the hinge of this bivalve, or
the heart-shape assumed by several of the species; _cardo_, in Latin,
signifying the hinge of a gate, and _cardesco_, a stone in the shape of a
heart.

It is to the _Mytilidæ_ family that we shall first direct our attention,
and here we find the Common or Edible Mussel, (_M. edule_,) and many
other species, in all of which the shell is more or less elongated,
or lengthened out, and pointed at one end. The members of this family
are abundant on most rocky coasts, where facilities are afforded for
the mollusks to moor themselves to rocks, stones, and other substances
covered at high-water, but left dry by the retreating tide. They are not,
however, confined to shores of this description, but are sometimes found
in vast numbers on low sandy or pebbly flats, which run far out into the
sea; these are called beds of Mussels, and are, like the Oyster grounds,
specially cared for and protected. As a ship by its cable, so commonly
the Mussel, by its bissus or beard, is made fast to its anchorage-ground,
be it pebbly or sandy beach, or jutting rock. Sometimes, however, the
mollusk travels, and this is how it manages to do so; it has a stout
fleshy foot, in shape something like that of a chubby child, and this it
can advance about two inches beyond the edge of the shell, then fixing
the point of it to a piece of rock or any other body, and contracting it,
the shell is drawn onward, and sure, though slow, progress is made in any
desired direction. The _Pinna_, as the marine Mussel is called, has a
foot which is cylindrical in shape, and has at the bottom a round tendon,
almost as long as itself, the use of which appears to be to gather in
and retain the numerous threads with which, when inhabiting the shores
of tempestuous seas, it lashes itself fast to the fixed objects around;
these threads are fastened at various points, and then drawn tight by the
animal, whose instinct teaches it that its brittle shell would soon be
broken in pieces, if suffered to roll hither and thither at the mercy of
the waves.

The Mussel has a very curious method of preparing its cable for this
service; it is not woven, nor spun, nor drawn out of the body, like the
web of the spider, but produced in a liquid form, and cast in a mould
which is formed by a groove in the foot, extending from the root of the
tendon to the upper extremity; the sides of this groove are formed so
as to fold over it and form a canal, into which the glutinous or sticky
secretion is poured; there it remains until it has dried into a solid
thread, when the end of it is carried out by the foot, and applied to the
object to which it is to be attached; the canal is then opened through
its whole length to free the thread, and closing again is ready for
another casting; as if conscious how much depends upon the security of
his lines, the animal tries every one after he has fixed it by swinging
itself round so as to put the threads fully on the stretch; when once
they are all firmly fixed, it seems to have no power of disengaging
itself from them; the liquid matter out of which they are formed, is
so very glutinous, or glue-like, as to attach itself firmly to the
smoothest bodies. The process of producing it is a slow one, as it does
not appear that the _Pinna_ can form more than four or five in the course
of twenty-four hours. When the animal is disturbed in its operations, it
sometimes forms these threads too hastily; they are then more slender
than those produced at leisure, and, of a consequence, weaker. On some
parts of the Mediterranean coast, as in Sicily, gloves and other articles
have been manufactured from the threads of this mollusk; they resemble
very fine silk in appearance.

[Illustration]

The foot of the Cockle, of which we here give a figure, is commonly
employed in scooping out the mud or sand, beneath which it conceals
itself; this useful limb assumes the form of a shovel, hook, or any other
instrument necessary for the purpose; it appears to be a mass of muscular
fibres, and to possess great power. As a boatman in shallow water sends
his vessel along by pushing against the bottom with his boat-hook,
precisely so does _Mr. Cardium_ travel; he doubles up his foot into a
club, and by an energetic use of it as a propeller, makes considerable
headway along the surface of the soft sand beneath the waters. In this
way, too, some members of the genus _solen_ force their way through the
sand; while those called _Tellina_ spring to a considerable distance, by
first folding the foot into a small compass, and then suddenly expanding
it, closing the shell at the same time with a loud snap; so that you see
these sober-looking mollusks are sometimes frolicksome fellows; this is
an enforcement of the lesson, judge not by appearances.

Some of the species, both of the Mussel and Cockle families, have very
beautiful shells. We give a representation of one of each, on Plate VIII.
Fig. 2 is the Magellanic Mytilus, (_M. Magellanicus_,) found chiefly
in the Straits of Magellan; it is generally four or five inches long,
the shells when polished are very brilliant, the deep purple colour
changing into rich violet, as they are held in different lights. In most
cabinets the large fan-like delicate shells of the genus _Pinna_ may be
observed; the largest species is that called _Pinna flabellum_, taken in
the Mediterranean; it sometimes exceeds two feet in length. The first of
these names is a Latin word signifying, besides a shell-fish, the fin of
a fish, or the wing feathers of a bird—hence the term pinion; it refers
to the fin-like or wing-like shape of this shell. _Flabellum_ means a
fan, referring probably to the bissus of the mollusk, which is fine and
glossy, like silk, and very abundant.

Many pretty specimens for figuring might be selected from the _Naidæ_,
a family of Fresh-water Mussels, so called from the Naiades, fabulous
divinities of the streams and rivers. The shells of many of these, which
are of considerable thickness, are lined with the most brilliant nacre,
and in these, as might be expected, pearls are sometimes found. One
species, abundant in some English rivers, called the _Mya Margaritifera_,
or, as some say, _Uno elongates_, has long been celebrated for this
valuable production. It was most likely with pearls from this mollusk
that Julius Cæsar adorned a breast-plate, which he dedicated to Venus,
and hung up in her temple. The rivers Esk and Conway were formerly
celebrated as British pearl-fishing grounds; a Conway pearl was presented
by her chamberlain, Sir Richard Wynn, of Gwyder, to Catharine, Queen
of Charles the Second; and in the royal crown of Britain this jewel is
said still to occupy a place. Sir John Hawkins, the circumnavigator of
the globe, held a patent for the pearl-fishery of the River Irt, in
Cumberland. The rivers of Tyrone and Donegal, in Ireland, have, or had,
their pearl-bearing Mussels; we read of one which weighed thirty-six
carats, (a carat is nearly four grains,) but not being of perfect shape
and colour, it was only valued at forty pounds. We also read of another
purchased by Lady Glenlealy, for £10, and found to be so perfect and
admirable, that £80 was afterwards offered for it, and refused.

These _Naidæ_ have not a bissus like the Marine Mussels, they are
therefore never attached to one object; they use their foot as a
propeller in traversing the muddy floor of the pond or river, and they
have a very funny way of getting along indeed; first, they open the
valves of the shell, put out the foot, and after some little hard work,
manage to set themselves up on edge; they then proceed by a series of
jerks, leaving a deepish furrow in the mud behind them.

We will now go to Fig. 3, the Spined Cytherea, the _Cytherea_ or _Venus
Dione_ of naturalists; the meaning of the term is the mother of Venus,
who was, as you will remember, the goddess of beauty, given to this shell
perhaps because it is entitled to occupy a place at the head of the
_Cytherea_, a genus of the _Cardiidæ_, or Cockle family, of which genus
there are about seventy-eight living species; this, as it is the most
rare, is also, perhaps, the most beautiful; it is found in the seas of
America, and is remarkable for the row of spines on the hinder border of
each valve; these vary much in size and number, being in some individuals
long and far apart, in others, short, thick, and closely set. The colour
of the shell also varies considerably, being sometimes of a delicate
rose colour; at others, more of a claret; at others again, bordering on
purple. It was for one of the first discovered specimens of this shell,
that £1000 is said to have been given. Truly a Venus of value this; it
ought to be called the Queen of Cockles!

Our next example, (see Fig. 4,) is the Spotted Tridacna, (_T.
maculatus_,) the latter term signifying spotted. In the _Chamidæ_ or Clam
family, is placed the _Tridacna_ genus, the discovered species of which
are not numerous; they are chiefly found in the Indian seas. The one
above mentioned claims pre-eminence for beauty. We cannot quite see the
applicability of the generic name; _Tridacnus_, in Latin, signifies to
be eaten at three bites, but he must be a man of large capacity indeed
who could so devour the head of this family, the Giant Tradacna, (_T.
gigas_,) a single specimen of which has been known to weigh as much as
five hundred and seventy pounds; from three to four hundred is by no
means an uncommon size. The shell of this giant mollusk is of a very
picturesque shape, something like its spotted _congener_, as we call
anything of the same kind or genus, only it is somewhat plainer, and more
deeply ribbed and indented. The inside is of a glossy whiteness, and it
is frequently used as a basin for garden fountains, or the reception of
rills or little jets of water, which sparkle in its stainless hollow. In
the church of St. Salpice, at Paris, is a shell of this immense Clam, the
valves of which are used as receptacles for holy water; it was presented
to Francis the First, by the republic of Venice. Fancy the clapping to of
such a pair of valves, when the animal closes its shell in alarm, and the
strength of the cable required to moor it to the rocks or coral reef. The
spotted species here figured has a solid and heavy shell, very elegantly
shaped, and beautifully marked, as will be seen; the greatly reduced size
of the figure prevents anything like justice being done to the original.

[Illustration]

The above is a figure of the Heart Isocardea, (_I. cor_,) which is also
a member of the Clam family, and one of the most elegantly-shaped shells
in the whole range of Conchology. It is a native of the Mediterranean
and other seas of Europe, and has been taken in deep water on the West
coast of Ireland. We complete this group with a representation of the
curious _Arcadæ_ family, or Ark shells, as they are commonly called,
because one of the species was thought to resemble the ark built by Noah.
Mr. Swainson tells us that the animals of these shells affix themselves
to other bodies by a particular muscle, which is protruded through the
gaping part of the valves; they also adhere, when young, by means of
the bissiform epidermis, or bissus-like outer skin: this species is a
native of the Atlantic Ocean and the seas of Europe. The Antique Ark,
(_A. antiqua_,) is very like the Common Cockle, being of a white colour,
and heart-shaped. We give below a representation of this shell, and also
of the shell of the pretty little Pearly Trigonia, (_T. margaritacea_,)
included in the _Arcadæ_ family; this is a rare species, found only in
the seas of New Holland.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]


SCALLOP SHELLS.

Several species of Scallop Shells are found scattered about on our
shores; they belong, as before stated, to the family _Pectinidæ_, the
meaning of which term has been already explained. These shells were
called by Cuvier “the Butterflies of the Ocean,” on account of the
various and beautiful colours which they exhibit. Some of them are
exceedingly thin, and brittle as glass; one species found in the Arctic
regions, is as transparent as that substance, and is therefore called
_P. vitreus_, from the Latin for glass, which is _vitreum_. One of
the commonest of our native Scallops is the St. James’ Cockle, (_P.
Jacobœus_;) this shell is found in great plenty along our southern
coasts; it is often referred to by old writers, on account of having
been commonly worn in the hats of pilgrims to Palestine, or the Holy
Land, as the scene of our Saviour’s life and death was called. Sir Walter
Raleigh, in his poem called “The Pilgrimage,” thus enumerates the
different articles considered necessary for a Palmer, as these pilgrims
were termed:—

    “Give me my _scallop shell_ of quiet,
      My _staff_ of faith to lean upon,
    My _scrip_ of joy, (immortal diet,)
      My _bottle_ of salvation,
    My _gown_ of glory, hope’s true gage,
    And thus I’ll make my pilgrimage.”

This Mollusk, it may be noticed, like many other bivalves, has a flat,
and a concave or hollow shell: in early times when plates and drinking
vessels were not so plentiful as they are now, one of these served the
former purpose, and the other the latter; thus, in speaking of a feast, a
Gaelic or Scottish bard has said—

    “The joy of the _shell_ went round.”

Sometimes the species termed _Pecten opercularis_, was used as the
pilgrim’s badge; the specific name comes most likely from the Latin
_operculum_, whose meaning has been explained.

[Illustration: COMMON SCALLOP.]

This too, is a common British shell, as is also the little speckled
Scallop, (_P. varia_,) which may be found on almost any part of the coast
where the water-line is margined with a sandy ridge. The shells are
generally about two inches long, of various colours, clouded, speckled,
and marked with about twelve ribs. There is a foreign species called
the Flounder Scallop, _P. pleuronectes_, which is remarkable for having
the two valves of the shell of different colours, the upper one being
of a rich reddish brown, and the lower one white: the specific name has
reference to this, being compounded of the Latin _pleura_—something
double, and _necto_—to join. The fish called the Flounder, is brown above
and white beneath, hence the English name of this shell. The preceding
engraving of the Common Scallop, viewed from the front, shows the flat
and concave form of the two valves of this shell, and also the depth of
the indentations or ridges.


LIMPITS.

Among the rocks of the British coast, there are no shells more frequently
met with than those of the Common Limpit, _Patella vulgata_; they lie
scattered about like so many little empty cups, each having, on the
death of the mollusk, fallen from the rocky cavity in which it was
embedded, and which was just large enough to contain it. Here the animal
attaches itself so firmly by its fibrous foot, which is hollow in the
centre, and acts like a sucker, that it is almost impossible to loosen
its hold otherwise than by inserting something thin, like the blade
of a knife between it and the stone. By this power of adhesion, the
Limpit is protected from the violence of the waves, and also from its
numerous enemies, aquatic birds and animals, which have a relish for
its flesh. Still vast numbers are used as food, both by man and the
inferior creatures, so that the means of defence furnished to the Limpits
of the rock, are not always sure. “The peasantry of the western isles
of Scotland,” we are told by Miss Pratt, “look to the Periwinkles and
Limpits, which abound on the rocks, for their daily meal, often for long
seasons, subsisting almost entirely upon this humble food. In the Isle
of Skye, the inhabitants are often, at one time of the year, without any
other source of provision.” Then comes the Sea-gull, and the Duck, and
the Pied Oyster-catcher, to feed on the poor little mollusk, the bill of
the latter bird being admirably adapted for loosening its hold on the
rock.

_Patella_ in Latin signifies a salad-dish, a knee-pan, and several other
domestic utensils, of a broad shallow make, and hence we find the plural
form of the word applied to the Limpit family, whose shells are of such a
shape. Members of this family are found on all rocky coasts, except those
of the Arctic seas; on Tropical rocks they grow to a large size, and form
a valuable article of food. A very curious piece of mechanism is the
tongue of the Common Limpit, it is from two to three inches long, and has
a spoon-like extremity, so that it looks, when extended from the mouth,
like a small snake; if examined through a microscope, it is seen to be
armed throughout its whole extent with rows, four deep, of sharp hooked
teeth, and between each row are placed two others, which have three
points, and are set in a slanting position; the use of this arrangement
we cannot at present determine, but no doubt it has a perfect adaptation
to the wants of the animal.

There are shell-fish called Key-hole Limpits, which belong to the genus
_Fissurellidæ_, from _fissura_—a cleft or slip, from whence comes also
fissure. All the members of this genus are distinguished by the aperture
at the top of the shell, shaped like a key-hole, which is situated
exactly over the breathing organs, and serves as a channel for the water
necessary for respiration.

Frequently upon the fronds of the large olive sea-weeds may be found a
tiny shell shaped something like that of the Common Limpit; it is of an
olive green colour, with blue streaks, and is called, from its clearness,
the Pellucid Limpit, _P. pellucida_. There is also another much like
it in appearance, which naturalists call _P. lœvis_. To the labours of
these little mollusks, according to Dr. Harvey, may be partly attributed
the destruction of the gigantic Algæ, (sea-weed.) Eating into the lower
part of the stems, and destroying the branches of the roots, they so far
weaken the base, that it becomes unable to support the weight of the
frond; and thus the plant is detached and driven on shore by the waves.

    “And so the forest tall that groweth,
      Underneath the waters clear,
    Does the little woodman mollusk,
      Level every year;
    From small causes, great results—
      Teaching you to persevere.”


ROCK-BORERS.

The family _Pholadæ_ comprises a group of mollusks, the boring habits
of which have long been known; they penetrate wood, hard clay, chalk,
and rocks, and devastate the labours of man; they attack the hulls of
ships, the piles which form the foundations of piers and break-waters,
and they force themselves upon our attention by the loss of property, as
well as of life, which results from their hidden depredations. Of this
family, those belonging to the genus _Pholus_ may be more especially
likened to the Edomites of Scripture, because they take up their abode
in the rock, and hollow out for themselves dwellings therein. With a
shell as thin as paper, and brittle as glass, the wonder is how these
Rock-borers work their way into and through hard stones. Some naturalists
assert that they effect this by means of an acid which decomposes the
substance of the rock, and renders it soft; others, that the animal
keeps turning round and round like an instrument called an auger, and
so gradually rasps away the surface of the stone with the angles of its
shell, but we question whether the shell would not be worn out first in
such a process. The generic name of these “stone-piercers,” comes from
the Greek word _Pholeo_—to hide, and the rocky chambers which they hollow
out for themselves, are as snug hiding-places as can well be imagined;
yet, however deep they may go into these gloomy caverns, as we should be
apt to suppose them, they need not be in darkness, for it appears that
these Pholades emit a most remarkable light, whether phosphorescent or
not does not appear to be determined; so strong is it, that it is said
to illuminate the mouth of the person who eats the mollusk; and it is
remarked by Dr. Priestly, that “contrary to the nature of most fish,
which give light when they tend to putrescence, this is more luminous the
fresher it is, and when dried its light will revive on being moistened
with water.” So that in more respects than one these rock-borers are
mysteries. The most common of them, perhaps, is the Prickly Pidduck, or
Peckstone, (_P. dactylus_,) which is much used by the fishermen of our
coasts as bait; the specific name is the Latin for a fruit shaped like
a finger, which is something like the shape of this mollusk, as will be
seen by the annexed engraving.

[Illustration]

The genus _Pholus_ is very widely distributed, and all the species have
the same boring habits as those of our own coast, which we need not
enumerate. Like them too in this respect are the marine worms called
_Teredo_, which make their way into the bottoms of ships, and all
submerged timber, but these will be more fully spoken of in another
volume. The above figure exhibits the _Pholas dactylus_ as it appears in
a section of rock, split open for the purpose of seeing the shelly miner
at his work.




MULTIVALVES.


We have insensibly passed from the Bivalve shells to those composed of
several pieces, and therefore called Multivalves; properly, perhaps, the
Rock-borers, last described, come into this division, for although their
covering consists mainly of two principal portions or valves, yet there
are often additional parts; in some a calcarious tube envelopes the whole
mollusk, leaving only an opening behind; this is more especially the case
with those which most resemble worms, such as the genera _Teredina_ and
_Teredo_, included by Lamarck in the family which he calls _Tubulidæ_.

The first group of multivalves we shall have to notice, are


THE CHITONS,

forming the family _Chitonidæ_. The term has a Greek derivation, and
means a coat of mail. These mollusks are covered by a shell formed of
eight distinct portions, arranged along the back in a single row, and
attached to a mantle which resembles leather, being very tough and
wrinkled; the edges of this mantle extend beyond the borders of the
plates, which overlap each other, so as to constitute a kind of armour,
very different from the conical shell of the Limpit, or the turbinated,
that is twisted, case of some of the Borers. The coverings of the Chitons
are variously marked, so that each distinct species is known by its
peculiar pattern, as a knight of old by the quarterings of his shield.
All the mantles, however, have scaly, hairy, or spiny margins. In this
coat of mail, the animal can roll itself up like an armadillo, and so
be tolerably secure from its enemies; it has an oval foot, the sides
of which are covered with small leaflets, and by means of this it can
attach itself to rocks, like the Limpit, or travel about in search of
adventures. It has no distinct head, therefore it is _acephalous_; nor
any perceptible eyes. The mouth is furnished with a long tongue, curled
up spirally, like a watch-spring, and armed with horny teeth.

The members of the Chiton family are numerous, being found on most rocky
shores; they attain the largest size in the hottest climates, having
never been found very far north. The British species are small, and not
more than two or three in number; they may be found adhering to stones
near low-water mark. We give a figure of one of these called the Tufted
Chiton, (_C. fascicularis_;) this word is from the Latin _fasciculus_—a
little bundle of leaves or flowers, and it refers to the hairy tufts that
edge the mantle of this marine slug.

[Illustration]


BARNACLES,

Or, as they are sometimes called, Bernicles, belong to what naturalists
term the class _Cirrhopoda_, sometimes spelled _cirripeda_, which appears
to be derived from the Latin _cirrus_—a tuft or lock of hair curled,
and _pede_—a foot; hence the term may be translated hairy-footed. Such
of our readers as have seen the Common or Duck Barnacle, (_Pentalasmis
anatifera_,) will at once understand the applicability of this term. Many
a piece of drift wood comes to land literally covered with long fleshy
stalks, generally of a purplish red colour, twisting and curling in all
directions, and terminating in delicate porcelain-like shells, clear and
brittle, of a white colour, just tinged with blue, from between which
project the many-jointed _cirrhi_, or hair-like tentacles, which serve
the purpose of a casting net, to seize and drag to the mouth of the
animal, its prey, which consists of small mollusks and crustacea.

This is the Barnacle about which such strange stories are told by old
writers, who affirmed that the Barnacle or Brent Goose, that in winter
visits our shores, is produced from these fleshy foot-stalks and hairy
shells by a natural process of growth, or, as some philosophers of our
day would say, of development. Gerard, who, in 1597, wrote a “Historie
of Plants,” describes the process by which the fish is transformed into
the bird; telling his readers that as “the shells gape, the legs hang
out, that the bird growing bigger and bigger the shells open more and
more, till at length it is attached only by the bill, soon after which it
drops into the sea; there it acquires feathers, and grows to a fowle.”
There is an amusing illustration given in Gerard’s book, where the young
Geese are represented hanging on the branches of trees, just ready to
drop into the water, where a number of those that have previously fallen,
like ripe fruit, and attained their full plumage, are sailing about
very contentedly. It was part of this theory that the Barnacles were of
vegetable origin, they grew upon trees, or sprung out of the ground like
mushrooms; so we find in the works of an old poet named Du Bartas, these
lines:—

    “So slow Bootes underneath him sees
    In the icy islands goslings hatched of trees,
    Whose fruitful leaves, falling into the water,
    Are turned, as known, to living fowls soon after;
    So rotten planks of broken ships do change
    To Barnacles. O transformation strange!
    ’Twas first a green tree, then a broken hull,
    Lately a mushroom, now a flying Gull.”

The investigations of modern science have quite exploded this foolish
notion; we now know exactly what transformations the Barnacle undergoes;
strange enough some of them are, but it does not change into a Goose,
although its specific name has reference to that bird, being derived from
_anas_, the Latin for Goose.

The shell of the Barnacle is composed of five pieces joined together by
membranes; four pieces are lateral, that is to say, they form the sides,
the word comes from the Latin _latus_—a side; the other is a single
narrow slip, which fills what would otherwise be an open space down the
back between the valves; these parts of the shell appear to be somewhat
loosely connected, so as to allow free action to the animal lodged
within, which is enclosed in a fine skin or mantle. The mouth is placed
at the lower part, near the opening, whence the _cirrhi_ issue forth;
this mouth is a curious piece of mechanism, being furnished with a horny
lip covered with minute _palpi_, or feelers; there are three pairs of
_mandibles_, that is jaws, the two outer ones being horny and _serrated_,
that is jagged or toothed like a saw; the inner one is soft and
membranous, that is, composed of little fibres, like strings, crossing
each other, as we see what are called the veins in a leaf.

Much more might be said about the internal structure of the Cirrhopods,
or _Balani_, as the Barnacle group is sometimes called, from the Latin
_Balanus_—a kind of acorn. By some naturalists, the term is not applied
to the stalked _Cirrhipoda_, like that we have been describing, but only
to the _sessile_ kinds, that is, those which set close or grow low; from
the same Latin root comes the English word _session_—a settling. The
coverings of these Dwarf Barnacles are sometimes called acorn shells;
they are commonly white, of an irregular cone shape, composed of several
ribbed pieces, closely fitted together with an opening at the top, closed
by an _operculum_, or stopper.

These shells cover in patches the surface of exposed rocks, drift wood,
and any other substance. Some of the mollusks affix themselves to the
bodies of Whales, others form a lodgment in the hollows of corals and
sponges. Once fixed they remain so during life, taking their chance of
such suitable food as may come within their limited sphere of action.
At an earlier stage of their existence, both their shape and habits are
very different, being lively little creatures, swimming about hither and
thither like water-fleas. They are about the tenth of an inch long, and
of most grotesque appearance, having six jointed legs set with hairs,
the whole being so arranged that they act in concert, and striking or
flapping the water, send the little body along in a series of bounds;
then the creature has two long arms, each furnished with hooks and a
sucker, and a tail tipped with bristles, which is usually folded up under
the body; its pair of large staring eyes are _pedunculated_, that is, set
upon foot-stalks; it has a house on its back, like a bivalve shell, into
which it can collect its scattered members when occasion requires. When
of sufficient age to settle itself in life, and become a staid member
of submarine society, it fixes itself to some convenient object, throws
away its eyes as no longer useful, gets rid of its preposterous limbs,
enlarges its house, and sits down to fishing in a small way for an honest
and respectable livelihood.

A piece of timber covered with Stalked Barnacles, wriggling and twisting
about like so many helmeted snakes, and waving their plume-like _cirrhi_,
is a very curious sight. They sometimes attach themselves to ship’s
bottoms in such numbers as to retard their progress through the water;
they do not, however, bore into and destroy the timber, like the
_Teredines_, or ship worms, to which we have alluded in our brief notice
of the _Pholadæ_. The growth of Barnacles must be very rapid, as a ship
perfectly free from them, will often return after a short voyage, with
her bottom below the water line completely covered.

We give a representation of a group of these stalked mollusks, as they
appear affixed to a piece of timber. This is the Common, or Duck Barnacle.

[Illustration]


CUTTLE FISH.

Strange and monstrous as are the forms of many of the creatures that
inhabit the deep, there are perhaps none more so than those belonging
to that division of the class _Cephalopoda_, called _Sepia_ or
Cuttle-fish. But before we go any further let us enquire what is meant by
a _Cephalopod_. Our readers have already learned that _Gasteropod_ means
stomach and foot, and that _acephalous_ means headless; now here we have
a word which takes a portion of each of the others, _cephal_—head, and
_peda_, or _poda_—a foot, consequently _ceph-a-lo-po-da_, is a class of
molluscous animals which have their feet, or organs of motion, arranged
around the head, something, you may suppose, like that celebrated hero of
nursery rhymes,

    “Tom Toddy, all head and no body.”

Only our bag-shaped Mr. Sepia, with his great round staring eyes, and
numerous legs or arms, whichever you please to call them, all twisting
and twining about like so many serpents, is a much more formidable
looking individual. A strange fellow is this altogether; he has a shell,
but he does not use it for a covering, he carries it inside of him, and
it serves the purpose of a sort of back-bone; it is horny and calcarious,
light and porous, as our readers well know, having most likely often
used it to take out unsightly blots, or erase mistakes in their copy or
cyphering books.

When Mr. Sepia walks abroad, he sticks his little round body upright,
so that his eyes, and mouth, which is armed with a parrot-like beak,
are brought close to the surface over which he passes, while his long
twining legs go sprawling about in all directions; on the insides of
these legs are a great number of small circular suckers, by means of
which the animal can fix itself to any object so tightly that it is
almost impossible to detach it without tearing off part of the limb.
Woe be to the poor unfortunate fish that chances to come in its way;
the snaky arms are thrown around it, and made fast, and away goes the
cephalopod for a ride, eating on the road to lose no time, on the finny
steed that carries it. In some species each of the suckers has a hook in
the centre, which of course renders the hold yet firmer, and no doubt
adds to the disagreeable sensation which their tight compression must
cause; it is likely that these hooks are intended to retain the hold
of soft and slippery prey, which might otherwise be too agile for the
“ugly customer,” that would affectionately embrace it. But Mr. Sepia,
though well armed in front, is rather open to attacks in the rear of
his soft naked body; to provide for such an emergency, he is furnished
with a little bag of inky fluid, which he squirts out in the face of his
pursuer, and escapes under cover of the cloud; this is the substance used
by painters, and called sepia, whence the generic name of the mollusks
which produce it.

In the British seas none of these cephalopods attain so large a size as
to be formidable to man, as they do in warmer climates. It was asserted
by Dens, an old navigator, that in the African seas, while three of his
men were employed during a calm in scraping the sides of the vessel,
they were attacked by a monstrous Cuttle-fish, which seized them in its
arms, and drew two of them under water, the third man was with difficulty
rescued by cutting off one of the creature’s limbs, which was as thick
at the base as the fore-yard of the ship, and had suckers as large as
ladles; the rescued sailor was so horrified by the monster, that he died
delirious a few hours after. An account is also given of another crew who
were similarly attacked off the coast of Angola; the creature threw its
arms across the vessel, and had nearly succeeded in dragging it down, and
was only prevented doing so by the severing of its limbs with swords and
hatchets. A diligent observer of nature has asserted that in the Indian
seas Cuttle-fish are often seen two fathoms broad across the centre,
with arms nine fathoms long. Only think, what a monster! with a body
twelve feet across, and eight or ten legs like water-snakes, some six and
thirty feet long. Well may it be said, that the Indians when they go out
in boats are in dread of such, and never sail without an axe for their
protection.

There is a story told by a gentleman named Beale, who, while searching
for shells upon the rocks of the Bonin Islands, encountered a species
of Cuttle-fish called by the whalers “the Rock-squid,” and rashly
endeavoured to secure it. This cephalopod, whose body was not bigger
than a large clenched hand, had tentacles at least four feet across,
and having its retreat to the sea cut off by Mr. Beale, twined its
limbs around that gentleman’s arm, which was bared to the shoulder for
the purpose of thrusting into holes of the rocks after shells, and
endeavoured to get its horny beak in a position for biting. The narrator
describes the sickening sensation of horror which chilled his very blood,
as he felt the creature’s cold slimy grasp, and saw its large staring
eyes fixed on him, and the beak opening and closing. He called loudly
for help, and was soon joined by his companion, who relieved him by
destroying the Cuttle-fish with a knife, and detaching the limbs piece by
piece.

There are several species of these cephalopods; the most generally
distributed appears to be the _Octopus vulgaris_, or Common Cuttle-fish,
which is sometimes found on our own shores, where also may be obtained
the Common Sepiola, _S. vulgaris_, usually about three inches long, and
the Officinal Cuttle-fish, _S. Officinalis_, which is about a foot in
length; we give below small figures of each of these three species, to
show the difference in the shape: the two last, it will be observed,
have, in addition to the eight tentacles, which give the generic name
_Octopus_, signifying eight, two long side arms, the use of which does
not appear to be very clearly determined.

[Illustration: O. VULGARIS. S. VULGARIS. S. OFFICINALIS.]


NAUTILUS AND AMMONITE.

The Nautili are called testaceous cephalopods, our readers know, or ought
to know, the meaning of both these terms. Like the Cuttle-fish they are
sometimes called _Polypi_, because they have many arms or tentacles, the
word _poly_, with which a great number of English words commence, being
the Greek for many. An ancient writer named Aristotle, after describing
the naked cephalopods, says, “There are also two polypi in shells; one
is called by some, _nautilus_, and by others, _nauticus_. It is like the
polypus, but its shell resembles a hollow comb or pecten, and is not
attached. This polypus ordinarily feeds near the sea-shore; sometimes
it is thrown by the waves on the dry land, and the shell falling from
it, is caught, and there dies. The other is in a shell like a snail, and
this does not go out of its shell, but remains in it like a snail, and
sometimes stretches forth its _cirrhi_.” The first of these animals,
there can be no doubt, is the Argonaut, or Paper Nautilus, and the latter
that which is called the True Nautilus, of both of which species let us
say a few words, which we will introduce by quoting some beautiful lines
from a poem called “the Pelican Island,” by James Montgomery.

    “Light as a flake of foam upon the wind,
    Keel upwards from the deep, emerged a shell,
    Shaped like the moon ere half her orb is filled:
    Fraught with young life it righted as it rose,
    And moved at will along the yielding water.
    The native pilot of this little bark
    Put out a tier of oars on either side;
    Spread to the wafted breeze a two-fold sail,
    And mounted up and glided down the billow,
    In happy freedom, pleased to feel the air,
    And wander in the luxury of light.”

The tiny mariner here alluded to, is the Paper Nautilus, common in the
Mediterranean and some tropical seas; its scientific name is _Argonauta
argo_. In the mythology, we read that _Argo_ was the name of a ship
that carried a certain Grecian named Jason, and a crew of _argives_ in
search of adventures; some say that the term is derived from a Greek word
signifying swift: this party of mariners, said to be the first that ever
sailed upon the sea, was called _Argonauts_, or, as it might be freely
translated, seamen of the ship Argo. _Nauticus_, in Latin, signifies
anything relating to ships or navigation, and here you have the whole
origin of the name of this little Argonaut, about which we must sing you
a song written by Mary Howitt, before we proceed further:—

    “Who was the first sailor; tell me who can;
      Old father Neptune?—no, you’re wrong,
    There was another ere Neptune began;
      Who was he? tell me. Tightly and strong,
        Over the waters he went—he went,
        Over the waters he went!

    Who was the first sailor? tell me who can;
      Old father Noah!—no, you’re wrong,
    There was another ere Noah began,
      Who was he? tell me. Tightly and strong,
        Over the waters he went—he went,
        Over the waters he went.

    Who was the first sailor? tell me who can;
      Old father Jason?—no, you’re wrong,
    There was another ere Jason began,
      Don’t be a blockhead, boy! Tightly and strong,
        Over the waters he went—he went,
        Over the waters he went.

    Ha! ’tis nought but the poor little Nautilus—
      Sailing away in his pearly shell;
    He has no need of a compass like us,
      Foul or fair weather he manages well!
        Over the water he goes—he goes,
        Over the water he goes.”

Many more poems of the like nature we might quote, for this little
shelled cephalopod has been a favourite with the poets time out of mind,
and in some instances they and the less imaginative naturalists have
disagreed in their accounts of its form and operations, for instance,
Pope says—

    “Learn of the little Nautilus to sail,
    Spread the thin oar and catch the driving gale.”

“Catch a fiddle-stick,” say some naturalists, the little Nautilus does
nothing of the sort; and if you go to him to learn navigation, you will
never be much of a sailor; he may teach you how to sink to the bottom and
rise again, and that kind of knowledge might be worth something to you
if you could breathe under water; and he might teach you how to swim, but
not how to sail, for in spite of all poetic theories, he does the former
and not the latter. Most usually he walks about at the bottom of the sea
on his long arms, something like the Cuttle-fish, feeding on the marine
vegetation; the shell is then uppermost; if we could look inside of it we
should see numerous little chambers or cells, the larger and outermost
of which only are inhabited by the mollusk, the others being filled with
air render the whole light and buoyant. Through the centre of these
chambers, down to the smallest of them, runs a membranous tube which can
be exhausted or filled with fluid at the pleasure of the animal, and
the difference thus effected in the weight of the shell enables it to
sink or swim; in the latter case, up it goes to the surface, and “keel
upwards from the deep,” emerges, as the poet has said, but once there it
soon reverses its position. The shell becomes like a boat it is true,
but its inhabitant neither points a sail nor plies the oar, but propels
itself along stem foremost by a muscular action, which by alternately
compressing and loosening a kind of siphon, throws out jets or gushes of
water, which by the resistance they meet with from the surrounding fluid,
give the desired onward motion, and away the swimmer goes, his long arms
gathered closely together, and streaming behind like the tail of a comet,
and its round eyes keeping a sharp look-out on either side. Should it
espy danger, the body and limbs are withdrawn into the shell, and the
fluid driven through the central tube, so as to compress the air in the
pearly cells, and down sinks the swimmer once again to his native depths,
where

    “The floor is of sand like the mountain drift,
      And the pearl shells’ spangle the flinty snow;
    And from coral rocks the sea-plants lift
      Their boughs where the tides and billows flow,
      The water is calm and still below.
    For the winds and waves are absent there;
      And the sands are bright as the stars that glow
    In the motionless fields of upper air.
    And life in rare and beautiful forms,
      Is sporting amid those bowers of stone,
    And is safe, when the wrathful spirit of storms,
      Has made the top of the waves his own.”

We give below two figures of the Argonaut, one of which represents him
crawling at the bottom of the sea, and the other swimming on the surface.

[Illustration]

The True, or Pearly Nautilus, (_N. Pompilius_,) the origin of whose
specific name we have been unable to discover, is much like the Argonaut
in appearance and general construction; the shell is externally smoother
and more iridescent, it is also generally somewhat thicker than the
former kind, and has internally more chambers or divisions; its pearly
lustre renders it a beautiful ornament, and the large size it frequently
attains a very conspicuous one. Its inhabitant has several peculiarities
of organization, which distinguish it from the Argonauts, but into these
we need not enter; neither can we pause to describe the other species
of nautili, the shells of which, like those of the Cowry and other
univalves, are covered with a membrane which hides their beauty. This
membrane or mantle sometimes extends some distance beyond the edge of
the shell, and, being of a light and filmy appearance, may have been
mistaken for a sail hoisted by the creature to catch the breeze, while
its long arms, thrust up into the air or down into the water, may have
been thought to be masts or oars, so that the poets are not so much to be
blamed, if they say as Wordsworth does.

    “Spread, tiny Nautilus, the living sail,
    Dive at thy choice, or catch the freshening gale.”

Nearly allied to the Nautili are these beautiful fossil shells called
Ammonites, from their fancied resemblance to the horns of a heathen deity
or god, called Jupiter Ammon. These shells, at once the wonder and pride
of geologists, are found in the chalk formations, and thousands of years
must have passed away since they were inhabited by living creatures.
The Nautili which swam and sported with them at the depths of the ocean,
as is proved by the shells of many species found in the same chalky
deposits, have still their living representatives, but those winding
galleries and pearly chambers once fragile as paper and brittle as glass,
now turned into, and surrounded by solid stone, are all shells of extinct
species, and we can hardly see and handle them without some degree of
awe and reverence; when we reflect on the great and wonderful changes
that have passed over the earth since they were formed by a hand divine,
instinct with the breath of life, and then to be embedded in the rock
as everlasting characters by which the unborn generations of men might
read in history of those changes, and of the providential dealings of God
with his creatures. Of these Ammonites, and other fossil shells, much
more will have to be said in our proposed geological volume; the poem
which follows will very appropriately conclude the above remarks, and
our present little work on shells—beautiful, wonderful shells! useful,
ornamental, instructive! The subject is one which we would earnestly
invite our young readers to study: it is but here introduced; we have
picked up a few, very few, of the wonders and beauties of conchology, and
presented them to their notice in the hope that they may be induced to
desire a more intimate acquaintance with this branch of natural science,
which has been hitherto greatly neglected. To understand it thoroughly,
much attention and perseverance will be required, but even a slight
acquaintance with it will yield both pleasure and profit to the mind.

[Illustration: NAUTILUS.]

[Illustration: AMMONITE.]


THE NAUTILUS AND THE AMMONITE.

    The Nautilus and the Ammonite,
      Were launched in storm and strife;
    Each sent to float in its tiny boat,
      On the wide, wild sea of life.

    And each could swim on the ocean’s brim,
      And anon its sails could furl,
    And sink to sleep in the great sea deep,
      In a palace all of pearl.

    And their’s was a bliss more fair than this,
      That we feel in our colder time;
    For they were rife in a tropic life,
      In a brighter, happier clime.

    They swam ’mid isles whose summer smiles
      No wintry winds annoy;
    Whose groves were palm, whose air was balm,
      Whose life was only joy.

    They roam’d all day through creek and bay,
      And travers’d the ocean deep;
    And at night they sank on a coral bank,
      In its fairy bowers to sleep.

    And the monsters vast of ages past,
      They beheld in their ocean caves;
    And saw them ride in their power and pride,
      And sink in their billowy graves.

    Thus hand in hand, from strand to strand,
      They sail’d in mirth and glee;
    Those fairy shells, with their crystal cells,
      Twin creatures of the sea.

    But they came at last to a sea long past,
      And as they reach’d its shore,
    The Almighty’s breath spake out in death,
      And the Ammonite liv’d no more.

    And the Nautilus now in its shelly prow,
      As o’er the deep it strays,
    Still seems to seek in bay and creek,
      Its companion of other days.

    And thus do we, in life’s stormy sea,
      As we roam from shore to shore;
    While tempest-tost, seek the lov’d—the lost,
      But find them on earth no more!

                               G. F. RICHARDSON.

[Illustration: Plate I.]

[Illustration: Plate II.]

[Illustration: Plate III.]

[Illustration: Plate IV.]

[Illustration: Plate V.]

[Illustration: Plate VI.]

[Illustration: Plate VII.]

[Illustration: Plate VIII.]




INDEX.


                                          PAGE.

                 INTRODUCTION.

    What are Shells                         iii

    Conchology                               iv

    Beauty and Value of Shells               vi

    Uses of Shells                         viii

    The Inhabitants of Shells                xi

    Malacology                              _ib_

    Classification of Shells                xii

    Taking and Preserving Shells           xiii

    The Cabinet                             _ib_

    On Cleaning and Polishing Shells         xv

    Fossil Shells                           _ib_

                   UNIVALVES.

    The Common Snail                         18

    Fresh-water Shells                       23

    The Whelk                                26

    Rock Shells                              27

    Periwinkle                               29

    Trochus, or Top-Shell                    31

    Cones, Volutes, Mitres, and Olives       35

    Cowries                                  38

                   BIVALVES.

    The Oyster                               41

    Pearls                                   49

    The Mussel and the Cockle                51

    Scallop Shells                           57

    Limpits                                  59

    Bock-borers                              61

                  MULTIVALVES.

    The Chitons                              63

    Barnacles                                64

    Cuttle Fish                              67

    Nautilus and Ammonite                    71




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