The shell book; a popular guide to a knowledge of the families of living mollusks, and an aid to the identification of shells native and foreign

Front matter

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY | LIBRARY

TS

Preface

Every person interested in shells has felt the need of a manual of the shell-bearing animals of sea and land, comparable to the comprehensive manuals provided for those who wish to study birds or insects or trees. Small hand-books serve as guides to the seashore, but they treat only detached portions of the great kingdom, Mollusca. What is needed for more serious study is a larger book in which the families of mollusks are arranged in their proper order, to give a general idea of the size and scope of the important genera, and their natural relationships. Such a popular guide should give precedence to the accepted English names of the families and of the individual species described, while © attaching to each its scientific name. It is quite possible to give the general reader the information he desires in his own language, without sacrifice of scientific accuracy.

A book of this kind must be the outgrowth of extensive acquaintance with living mollusks in their natural surroundings, or it will be as dead as the shells in a cabinet, and dry as the dust on the old shell catalogues. It must bring together as much as can be found out about the habits of the mollusks described, and the uses people make of them, if they have any economic value. Many shells have never yet been seen alive; others are practically unknown. It is astonishing how little is known about many species of mollusks.

The standard literature of conchology has a limited circulation. The classics are rare and sumptuously illustrated volumes locked up in glass cases in the great libraries. These are out of date, of course. The newer treatises are expensive and very technical. Many facts of the highest interest and value are hidden away in official reports of scientific expeditions, not easily obtainable nor easily read by anyone untrained in the sciences.

If I have failed in my attempt to make an interesting and useful shell book, it is not because conditions were unfavorable for my purpose. Everything and everybody worked together to help me.

vii

Preface

In the first place I learned the difficult art of doing nothing, by which alone one can get on in studying the life of the seashore. For a long and leisurely summer cruise on the Gulf coast of Florida I have to thank the hospitable skipper of the houseboat Irene, Mr. A. W. Dimock, who judged shell study the proper foil for the more active pursuit of playing the leaping tarpon before acamera. Through his inspired suggestion and invitation, this book became a possibility. On the sub-tropical beaches of uninhabited islands time stood still, and a vast Floridian leisure possessed my soul. Beyond fishing, when the sun and tide were right, no more exacting demands were made upon me than to answer the dinner horn and to go into the water when it rained. On those tide-washed shores I found at home the bright-hued creatures I had met before only in books —the most varied and most beautiful assemblage of shells to be found on any beach belonging to the United States.

The sober-coloured east coast shells I have studied on rocky and sandy shores from Old Point Comfort to Casco Bay. My teachers have been children and sages — clam-diggers of Cape Cod, grizzled old oystermen of Long Island, men of science and veteran collectors of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Holl, Mass. The hospitality of Dr. and Mrs. Frank Overton, of Patchogue, L. I., made most pleasant and profitable my study of the oyster industry of Great South Bay. Dr. and Mrs. Henry M. Dean showed me similar kindness when I, a stranger, went to see the making of pearl buttons from the shells of river clams in the factories at Muscatine, Iowa.

On the Pacific coast Professor Josiah Keep and the group of conchologists that centres at Los Angeles, showed me many kindnesses. My greatest debt is to Mr. and Mrs. T. S. Oldroyd, of Long Beach, well known to conchologists and collectors. Besides giving me access to their unexcelled collection of west coast shells, they spent much time with me on the rich collecting grounds they know so well in the neighbourhood of San Pedro Bay. The Los Angeles Public Library bought a complete set of the rare and costly “Conchologia Iconica,” by Reeve (in twenty quarto volumes, illustrated by 2,600 plates coloured by hand) in order that work on the book might progress during my winter in Southern California. For this unusual favour I thank Mr. C. J. Lummis, librarian, and Dr. C. J. K. Jones, director of study and research.

viii

Preface

Through the kindness of Mr. C. H. Townsend, Director of the New York Aquarium, I have had opportunity to study many mollusks alive in the fish tanks, and in the remarkable series of balanced aquaria, in charge of Mr. L. B. Spencer.

At the American Museum of Natural History, with its magnificent collection of shells and its library, every facility for study has been at hand. Particular thanks are due this Museum, the officers of which selected and placed at Mr. Dugmore’s disposal the shells from which the color and half-tone illustrations were made. Dr. Louis P. Gratacap, Curator of Conchology, has read the book critically in manuscript, and given me, on all occasions, his broad knowledge of the subject and the benefit of his judgment on disputed points. I am also indebted to Mr. Maxwell Smith for painstaking research and for the use of material from his private collection.

The plan and nomenclature of this book follow the accepted standard, ‘“‘The Manual of Conchology,”’ by Tryon and Pilsbry. The shifting of the Cephalopods to fourth place instead of first is justified, I think, in a shell book, because, with the exception of the chambered nautilus, these mollusks are destitute of true, external shells.

JuLiA ELLEN RoceErs.

New York, February 1, 1908.

ix

PREFACE ‘ ‘ < 2 x ‘ é vii

Part I: How To Know Shells

CHAPTER PAGE I How to Know Shells P . as ? 3 3 II The Balanced Aquarium and the Snailery 2 9

Part Ii: The Univalves And Chitons Class Gasteropoda

I A Typical Univalve Mollusk . : é : 21 II The Murex Shells. Rock Shells 7 : ‘ 27 III The Oyster Drill . ; P : ‘ P 38 IV The Purples. Dog Winkles_. P : : 42 V The Tritons and Frog Shells . . : : 49 VI The Spindle Shells and Band Shells . ; 56 VII The Whelks. Trumpet Shells. ‘ : : 61 VIII The Basket Shells. Dog Whelks . ; ‘ 71 IX The Chank Shells. , ’ : : ‘ 76 X The Volutes and Melon Shells . : ‘ : 79 XI The Mitre Shells. é ‘ : : : 87

XII The Margin Shells ; P . : XIII The Olive Shells, Rice Shells. Harp Shells. gI XIV The Dove Shells. 5 4 : : ‘ 100 XV_ The Cross-barred Shells. ‘ ' 4 é 103 xi

CHAPTER XVI XVII XVIII XIX XX XXI XXII XXIII XXIV XXV XXVI XXVII XXVIII

XXIX XXX XXXI XXXII XXXIII XXXIV XXXV XXXVI XXXVII XXXVIII XXXIX XL

The Auger Shells

The Notch-side Shells .

The Egg Shells : ‘ The Helmet Shells. Cameo Shells

The Tun Shells. Wine Jars. Fig Shells

The Moon Shells and Velvet Shells .

The Carrier Shells The Sun-dial Shells .

The Stair-case Shells. Ladder Shells. Wentletraps The Violet Snails The Hairy-keeled Snails The Screw Shells. Tower Shells The Worm Shells and Pod Shells The Blind Shells. Tube Shells The Eulimas : = Ge F The Pyramid Shells. Obelisk Shells .

The Periwinkles and Chink Shells The Horn Shells : The Black Snails. Marsh Snails The River Snails ; : The Spire Shells and Flood Shells The Sentinel Shells .

The Valve Shells 7 The Pond Snails. River Snails ; The Apple Snails. Flask Snails : The Looping Snails .

The Round-mouthed Snails The Helicinas . , : The Sea Snails. Bleeding Tooth su

LII LI LIV

The Liotias é 4 A The Pheasant Shells

The Turban Shells and Star Shells The Top Shells and Dolphin Shells The Wide-mouthed Shells

The Slit Shells :

The Keyhole Limpets

The Chitons. Coat-of-mail Shells The Sea Butterflies ;

The Naked Sea Slugs

The Flesh-eating Land Snails The Glassy Snails

The Hungry Snails

The Banded Snails

The Agate Shells

The Cylinder Shells

The Chrysalis Shells and Door Shells ;

The Land Slugs The Amber Snails The Ear Snails The Pond Snails The Siphon Shells

Part Iii: The Tooth Shells Class Scaphopoda

The Tooth Shells xiii

279 280

282 286 287 290 296

VIII IX

X

XI XII XIII XIV XV ‘XVI XVII XVIII XIX XX XXI XXII XXIII XXIV XXV XXVI XXVII XXVIII

XXIX

Part Iv: The Bivalves Class Pelecypoda

The Watering-pot Shells and Club Shells

The Ship Worm

The Piddocks : : :

The Razor Shells. Razor Clams

The Rock-borers. : ,

The Soft-shell clams. Sand Clams

The Basket Clams

The Duck-bill Shells and Lanta Shells

The Surf Clams. Hen Clams

The Semeles : : ; ; ;

The Rock-dwellers

The Cyrenas and Pea Shells

The Iceland Cyprina

The Cockles. Heart Shells

The Rock Oysters

The Furbelowed Clams

The Lucinas

The Thick-shelled Hearts

The Astartes. :

The Pearly prec wiles Mussels

The Three-angled Clams

The Nut Shells :

The Ark Shells. Chest Shells

The Wing Shells, Pearl Oysters and Hamner Oysters. : ‘ '

The Pen Shells. Sea Wings, Fin Shells xiv

CHAPTER

XXX XXXI XXXII XXXIII XXXIV XXXV

I

II III IV Vv VI VII VIII

The Thorny Oysters

The File Shells : The Scallops. Comb Shells The Jingle Shells

The Window Shells

PART V: THE CEPHALOPODS The Many-armed Mollusks

The Argonaut. Paper Nautilus

The Devil-fishes. Octopi

The Spirula

The Cuttle. Sepia

The Common Squids .

The Flying Squids and the Gia Sautds The Chambered Nautilus

XV

VIII.

COLOUR PLATES

Abalones of the California Coast Univalve Shells of Tropical Seas.

Univalve Shells of Tropical Seas .

Univalve Shells of Tropical Seas .

Univalve Shells of Tropical Seas .

Tropical Land Shells

Marine and Fresh-water Bivalve Shells .

Bivalve Shells of Tropical Seas

Frontispiece

BLACK AND WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

Gathering Shells. : : : ; : . : 4 A Beach in Southern Florida . ; : : : 5 Fresh-water Aquarium and Marine Aquarium ‘ s 12 A Good Locality for Fresh-water Mollusks : ; . FB Murex Shells . F . . 22 Soft Parts of a Univalve ‘ . ‘ : . 23 A Typical Univalve Shell ; . 23 A Single Row of Teeth Across the Radula of Helicina convexa. : : ; 23 Rose-branch Murex Shells : . i : 23 Murex Shells . . : F : : . 26 Murex Shells : : ; F . ’ : : 27 Murex Shells: P : : 3 ‘ : ; . 38 Murex Shells 7 ; : . ; . 39 Trophons, Drill and Eupleura . : : . . 42 Purples and Near Relatives . : : ‘ , . 4B Unicorn Shells and Magilus_. : ‘ ; : . 48 Tritons. : : : . ; 3 ‘ . 49 Trumpet Shells : : : : ; ; . 54 Frog Shells and a Triton A ‘ ; : ‘ 55 Spindle Shells and Others : . : . 58 Marine Univalves . ; F ; ; . . 59 Whelks ; : : : 7 ‘ . . 64 The Edible Whelk : ; ‘ 65 Giant Pear Conch or Knobbed Whelk ; : : 70 Giant Whelks, or Pear Conchs, and as Ribbon , 71 Dog Whelks and Others : : . 74 A Volute and Melon Shell ; : : : i . 75 The Musical Volute and the Junonia : ‘ ' . 86 The Imperial Volute .. : F ‘ : . 87 Melon Shell and Mitre Shells. : : F ‘ . go

Margin Shells and Others ‘ : : : ; . gl xix

Illustrations

Olive Shells . ; : ; : ; : P . 98 Marine Univalves . ; . “99 Auger Shells, Notch Side Shells and ‘Chossbarted Shells . 110 A Rocky Beach Where Periwinkles Abound. saa Conch

of West Indies . : : . Iti Cone Shells and a Conch Shell. : ; . 118 Beak Shell and Conch Shells . . 119 Little Screw Shell, Pelican’s Foot and Scorpion Shell . 122 Cowries P ; . : : . 123 Cowries and Coffee Pen Shells : : ' 3 . 134 Egg Shells. : . : ; : . 135 Helmet Shells % : , , . 138 Tun Shells and Helmet Shells . ; F : ; . 139 Large Marine Snails : ‘ : : ; , . 144 Moon Shells and Others . : ‘ F ; . 145 Slipper Shells and Giant Moon Shell ‘ i : . 148 Limpets and Carrier Shells. : : ‘ P . 149 Carrier Shell and Sun-dial Shells : ; : . 156 Wentletraps, Violet Snails and Others. : R . 157 Periwinkles and Worm Shells : : ; : . 180 Horn Shells . : ; ; : : . 181 Marsh and Apple Snails . , : ; : : 188 Round-mouthed Snails . : F : : F . 189 Sea Snails and Turban Shells . : : : : . 214 Star Shells and Top Shells : : : i . 215 Top Shells. : : : : ‘ ‘ : . 218 Top Shells and Others ; . : ‘ . 219 Ear Shells. Abalones : ; : : . 224 The Red Abalone . ; . 225 A Clam Fisherman on the Mississippi River : : . 226 Dead Man’s Island, off San Pedro Harbour, Southern

California : 3 : : . °226 A Cactus Fence in Southern California : : 2 . 226 Drying Abalone Meats for Export to Japan. : . 226 Slit Limpets and Key-hole Limpets : , ‘ . 227 Limpets, Chiton and Shield Shell. : : : . 238 The Giant Chiton . : ; P : : ; . 239 Chitons and Bubble Shells : : : : . 240 Land Snails and Umbrella Shell —.. : : m . 241

Tropical Snails. i : : . , : . 278 xx

Illustrations

Cylinder Shells, Pond Snails, Midas’s Ear and Tooth Shells

Wood-boring Bivalves ‘ : ‘ :

Piddocks. Rock-borers

Parts of a Hard-shell Clam

Razor Clams and Other Clams

The Old Clam Digger .

Rock-borers and Hard-shell Clams .

Soft-shell and Other Clams :

Clams Useful and Beautiful. . z

Clams and Cockles ; : 2

Wedge Shells and Tellens

Giant Clams and Sunset Shells

Cockles

Rock Oysters and a — Clam

One Valve of the Giant Clam of Australia, and Bear’ s Paw Clam

Chestnut Crassatells, Tiger Lucina, Grooved Lunica, Northern Cardita, Waved Astarte, Broad-ribbed Cardita

Fresh-water Mussels

Fresh-water Mussels

Making Pearl Buttons at Muscatine, lowa

Ark Shells and Others

Mussels :

Acres of Edible Mussels ‘

Wing Shells, Rock-dwellers and a Mussel .

Oysters of Tropical Seas.

Pen Shells. :

Thorny Oysters and Others

Marine Bivalve Shells

Scallops and a File Shell

Scallop Shells ;

Oysters and Jingle Shells

The Oyster and Oystering on Great South faa Long Island

Masses of Coon Oysters . : :

Egg Cradle of the Paper Nautilus

Chambered Nautilus '

279 282

Chapter I: How To Know Shells

ALL up and down the ocean border, east and west and south, I have met people picking up shells. Children and grown people both give themselves to the eager search for ocean treasures left by the outgoing tide. The fascination of the pursuit—who has not yielded to it ? Who ever came back from a walk on the beach without at least a handful of shells too irresistibly pretty or interesting to leave?

Ask the name of a shell and the reply is almost invariably: “It’s some kind of clam,” or, “It’s some kind of snail.’ Few grown people regard with any feeling but distaste, if not disgust, “the slimy thing inside.” Apparently they distrust the statement that the shell is but the skeleton of the living mollusk it protects.

It is not surprising that a popular misconception exists as to the origin of shells. Even scientists devoted to conchology used to discard the soft parts without considering their structure. The shell was the thing. On its characters alone classification was based. Now the whole mollusk is the thing, shell and all. The name is from the Latin adjective mollis, which means soft. Some mollusks have no shells at all. Most of them have shells for protection of their soft bodies, but they do not build them, as bees make comb of wax and the white-faced hornet builds her paper palace. Mollusks are shell-builders in the same sense that you and I are bone-builders. The fleshy mantle of the mollusk secretes lime from the water and adds it, layer by layer, to the growing shell. The horny skin outside and the pearly or enamel lining protect the shell substance from the corrosive action of acids in the water.

When we consider how little was known a hundred years ago about plants and animals compared with what the century has added; and when we think how changed is the attitude of scholars toward sciences to-day, we may well marvel that so much has been accomplished in so short a time. Science for its own sake is no such real and vital thing as science in its relation to human life. A great popular interest in natural sciences has followed the lead of scientists. Generations of Nature-lovers are coming on.

Conchology, as the name confesses, was the science of shells. In 1800 two thousand species of shells were known. Now fifty thousand species of mollusks are distinguished by name. The whole specimen is studied to determine its relationships. Its life history and habits are eagerly investigated. Thus has a dead science come to life; and we shall see people opening their eyes more and more to the wonderful forms of molluscan life that are all about them, but which they have not yet learned how to see.

The scope of the Mollusca is great. No other animal group has so wide and varied a range of distribution. All latitudes have their peculiar genera and species, excepting only the extreme polar regions. Land shells range from tide water to snowy mountain tops, to the limits of animal and vegetable life. Lakes and rivers teem with fresh-water forms. Amphibious mollusks cluster where land meets water. From the populous ocean border a diminishing list of marine forms live on the ocean bed to abyssmal depths. The pelagic mollusks live on the surface of the open sea.

Mollusks there are that climb, leap, crawl, burrow, swim, dive, float, even fly; for the graceful sea arrow which darts out of water like a flying fish, is a squid, and squids are mollusks. There is no mode of locomotion denied them. From microscopic forms they range in size to the ponderous spindle-shell, a marine snail two feet long, and the giant clam, four feet across, weighing five hundred pounds.

As scavengers on the ocean border and inland, mollusks are important agents of sanitation, destroying disease germs in decaying organic matter, thereby purifying water and air. Snails destroy noxious fungi and weeds. Mollusks furnish food to man and other animals. Toa large extent they are the food of cod and other fish. Our dependence upon them is no less a fact because it is indirect, as in this case.

Oysters are preéminent among edible mollusks, with clams and cockles, and snails and scallops in a long train after them. An oyster is preéminent, too, as the source of the world’s wealth

NOILVOVA ANOHSVAS V JO NOA AHL AIVH SI STIAHS ONINAHLVO yoounq, “y urypnf <q ydersojoyg vardolTd NYAHLNOS JO SHHOVad AHL NO ANNOA AUV ALAMVA LSALVAYD AHL NI STTAHS ThalLavad yoounqd *y ueltnf Aq ydesZoj0yg in pearls. Mother-of-pearl is the.lining of shells. Pearl buttons are cut from shells of the fresh-water clams. Cameos are cut from conchs and -helmet shells. Sepia ink and the far-famed Tyrian dyes are molluscan secretions. Royal robes were woven of the threads by which the little pen shell clings to its rocky abode. A little cowrie of handy size and shape is the “money shell” of African tribes, the currency used in all traffic. But these interesting mollusks we can only read about. There are others closer by.

Go with me down to the seashore when the tide is out. It takes time to get the eyes and the mind focused upon what one is looking at. The beach is scattered with the dead shells of its own inhabitants. Between the limits of the high and low tides is a zone of life that follows in and out the curves and angles of the crumbling sea wall. In the tide pools, under the smooth sand,on rocks, under spreading green seaweed, live the creatures of the seashore. They are retiring in disposition. Very naturally they do not wave us a welcome.

How quickly a child throws away a lapful of wave-worn shells to watch the doings of alive one! Do you see that small jet of water spouting upward? The spade thrust deftly under turns out aslim razor clam. Watch or he will dive into the sand before you can get him into the pail of sea water. Fill it half full of sand and how quickly he is out of sight.

What is that ridge on the smooth sand? The boy explores it with his bare toe, and turns out a surprised moon shell. Watch the disturbed creature draw his great foot into the stout shell, and shut the world out with the horny door.

Those familiar “sand collars,” so fragile when they are dry, turn out to be the egg-carrier of the moon shell. And the poor clams whose shells are bored with neat round holes near the beaks are victims of the moon shell’s voracious appetite. It is easy to prove this by putting the two together alive in the pail and leaving them over night. Sometimes a shell scampers clumsily over the sand instead of sedately plodding along just under the surface. It tumbles over, and reveals a sheaf of jointed arms at the opening. The original owner has been superseded by that inveterate househunter, the hermit crab.

There is positively no end to the new discoveries one makes when the eyes are once open to the strange doings of the shoredwellers. It is not study to watch them. It is one of the finest ways to put in the vacation of a brain-worker. It is true recreation. If the sojourn lasts a week or longer, have a jar of sea water with sandy bottom and some green seaweed to keep it. pure. Put the creatures you wish to watch into this aquarium—a miniature ocean—for your convenience and pleasure. Here the shy mollusks will lose their self-consciousness, and live their lives as contentedly and naturally as the bolder ones.

If you live inland you may never achieve a vacation at the seashore. Go to the lake or the stream nearest home. Sweep the edges of the ditch with a dip net. Rake the bottom of the brook and the pond. The number of aquatic mollusks living in such situations is such that you soon abandon the idea that all but a few live in the sea. No marine specimen ever exhibits more intelligence or agility than the little bladder snail that lives on plants in ponds and ditches. Put a few in an aquarium jar in spring. The eggs, then the young, will hold your interest like a play. Through their eventful youth these little gymnasts will migrate in straight lines, at various angles, from one part of the tank to another, on threads of mucus, fine as a spider’s web. Their tricks are amazing and amusing, in infinite variety.

The inlander has at hand all the air-breathing mollusks, the land snails of his region. The forest snails hide under loose bark, and under decaying logs. Sun-enduring kinds hide among grass roots, and among more luxuriant vegetation, and fare forth in damp weather or only by night. The number of the land snails is very great, even in our temperate zone.

Little is yet known about the life history of many of these. The limits of distribution are vague and inaccurate for many. When does this snail lay its eggs? How long do the young require to reach maturity P When does that species seal up its doorway and go into the ground to spend the winter? The young conchologist can ascertain the correct name of a specimen by sending it to one of the scientific institutions named on page 8, where a specialist will answer his inquiry. The careful observer, if he keeps a note-book, may discover and pass on to conchologists valuable facts in the life history of little-known species. The study of our land mollusks is very incomplete. It is a worthy and enjoyable opportunity that is open to earnest young naturalists to-day,

Is is worth while to make a collection of shells. This is one of the most desirable channels into which to guide the collecting zeal of children. Pennies are better invested in gay-hued sea shells at the curio shop than in the equally dazzling display in the candy shop. I could never doubt the genuineness nor the enduring quality of a child’s love for a growing shell collection after spending a winter at Long Beach, Cal., and seeing a child’s small hoard of ‘‘a window shell, two Muricks (Murex) and a Turritella Coopert 1 found myself!’ grow till a small cabinet was needed to display and protect from dust a good variety of native and exotic species. Friends always rally to the assistance of the amateur conchologist. Shell dealers have tropical shells of great beauty at surprisingly small prices. When his experience is wider, the collector can obtain many of the species he desires by exchange with other collectors in different parts of the country, and in foreign countries. To all these resources are added his own industry in his own neighbourhood. Shell collectors are always enthusiasts, and their enthusiasm is likely to become contagious, especially as it is supplemented by study of mollusks alive, in the aquarium and snailery and in their native haunts.

The Golden Age of Conchology was reached in the middle of the last century when Hugh Cuming returned from cruising among the islands of many seas, bringing as spoils of his wanderings thousands of shells of the Tropics, the largest and handsomest to be found in the world. He had twenty-five hundred different species of marine shells, and five hundred species of land shells. Such forms find refuge among groves of many-coloured corals and sea-weeds; the air-breathers hide among tropical vegetation, unseen because as gaily striped as the flowers. Many of these splendid shells were absolutely unknown to science. The tremendous effect they produced upon the shell collectors of Europe cannot be described. Magnificent private collections ‘represented the grand passion of many wealthy and ambitious amateurs. Auction sales were patronised by persons of high social standing, noted conchologists, and shrewd speculators. These were centres of excited competition, where prices of rare and beautiful shells reached surprising heights.

Most of these private collections have been absorbed by great museums, where they are displayed for the enjoyment of the public, or are at least available to those who wish to study them.

The great collections of this country are at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, the Academy of Sciences in Philadelphia and the American Museum of Natural History of the City of New York. Chicago has a fine collection in its Academy of Sciences. Other cities are building up similar exhibits. Colleges and universities, public libraries and local museums house many private collections displayed where the public may use and enjoy them. In connection with the great museums scientists are devoting their lives to research.

Children and others interested in shells should pay occasional visits to some great collection. Conchologists of world-wide fame are very kindly people, eager to help beginners by identifying a perplexing specimen, or by helpful suggestions. Such experiences are enlightening and impressive, and leave very pleasant memories.

After such a visit we come home to our own with new pleasure. We take out the prettiest shells, finger their glossy, curving spires, and delight in their rich harmonies of colouring. We almost love them for their changeless beauty. What must it be like to gaze over a boat’s side at the wonderful coral groves where such shells are seen alive! Shall we have the good luck to go some day to Jamaica, or to the Philippines, where live the most beautiful land shells in the world? Or to the East Indian or Panama beaches, with their wonderful marine forms?

Pending the decision of these fascinating questions, let us take a look into the aquarium where the pond snail hangs, shell downward, calmly grazing the green scum from the top in an irregular swath. In the snailery the hungry ones have found our offering of lettuce leaves. Outside, along the garden path, in the cool stillness of the summer twilight,

Stoop to watch the tube-eyed snail Creep o’er his long, moon-glittering trail.

The life story of the most wonderful of tropical mollusks is not more interesting than that of the humblest snail that takes toll of our vegetable garden.

Chapter Ii: The Balanced Aquarium And The Snailery A Practicable Way To Study Mollusks Alive In Your Own Home

AsoutT fifty years ago a young lady up in Vermont took home from a pond a two-quart glass jar of water in which she had collected a few tadpoles, minnows and snails, and some of the growing pond-weed among whose leafy stems she found them. In her home she kept this happy family; the water did not stale and grow turbid; the animals and plants throve as if they were still in their native pond.