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a FRE eaten gna TNT EE AS Sn Se A ait LG SON RIET Semen ey
oar Sa Ey ng cme a RS LORE ABER RIA,

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.

Chap. 22. Copyright NOs oe

TIGG. 4

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

fo |
Eppletons’ home Reading Books

EDITED BY
WILLIAM T. HARRIS, A. M., LL. D.

UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION

DIVISION I

NATURAL HISTORY ‘

i NOD PEO

ABALONES.

1, 3, 4, Cerianthus membranicus—different varieties. 2, Shell and living animal,
Haliotis tuberculata. 5,10, Actinia equina. 6, Actinia cari. 7, Empty shell of
Haliotis rufescens. 8, Haliactis bellis. 9, Eloactis mazelii.

MPPLETONS’ HOME READING BOOKS

Mee HALL OF SHELLS

BY

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MRS. A. S. HARDY

AUTHOR OF THREE SINGERS

NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

1897

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_ By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.

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INTRODUCTION TO THE HOME READING
BOOK SERIES BY THE EDITOR.

Tue new education takes two important direc-
tions—one of these is toward original observation,
requiring the pupil to test and verify what is taught
him at school by his own experiments. ‘The infor-
mation that he learns from books or hears from his
teacher’s lips must be assimilated by incorporating it
with his own experience.

The other direction pointed out by the new edu-
cation is systematic home reading. It formsa part of
school extension of all kinds. The so-called “ Univer- ,
sity Extension” that originated at Cambridge and Ox-
ford has as its chief feature the aid of home reading by
lectures and round-table discussions, led or conducted
by experts who also lay out the course of reading.
The Chautauquan movement in this country prescribes
a series of excellent books and furnishes for a goodly
number of its readers annual courses of lectures. The
teachers’ reading circles that exist in many States pre-
scribe the books to be read, and publish some analysis,
commentary, or catechism to aid the members.

Home reading, it seems, furnishes the essential
basis of this great movement to extend education

\"§

vi _ THE HALL OF SHELLS. —

beyond the school and to make self-culture a habit
of life.

Looking more carefully at the difference between
the two directions of the new education we can see
what each accomplishes. There is first an effort to
train the original powers of the individual and make
him self-active, quick at observation, and free in his
thinking. Next, the new education endeavors, by the
reading of books and the study of the wisdom of the
race, to make the child or youth a participator in the
results of experience of all mankind.

These two movements may be made antagonistic
by poor teaching. The book knowledge, containing as
it does the precious lesson of human experience, may
be so taught as to bring with it only dead rules of
conduct, only dead scraps of information, and no
stimulant to original thinking. Its contents may be
memorized without being understood. On the other
hand, the self-activity of the child may be stimulated
at the expense of his social well-being—his originality
may be cultivated at the expense of his rationality.
If he is taught persistently to have his own way, to
trust only his own senses, to cling to his own opinions
heedless of the experience of his fellows, he is pre-
paring for an unsuccessful, misanthropic career, and
is likely enough to end his life in a madhouse.

It is admitted that a too exclusive study of the
knowledge found in books, the knowledge which is
ageregated from the experience and thought of other
people, may result in loading the mind of the pupil
with material which he can not use to advantage.

-EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION, vii

Some minds are so full of lumber that there is no
space left to set up a workshop. The necessity of
uniting both of these directions of intellectual activity
in the schools is therefore obvious, but we must not,
in this place, fall into the error of supposing that it is
the oral instruction in school and the personal influ-
ence of the teacher alone that excites the pupil to ac-
tivity. Book instruction is not always dry and theo-
retical. ‘The very persons who declaim against the
book, and praise in such strong terms the self-activity
of the pupil and original research, are mostly persons
who have received their practical impulse from read-
ing the writings of educational reformers. Very few
persons have received an impulse from personal con-
tact with inspiring teachers compared with the num-
ber that have received an impulse from such books as
Herbert Spencer’s Treatise on Education, Rousseau’s
Emile, Pestalozzi’s Leonard and Gertrude, Francis
W. Parker’s Talks about Teaching, G. Stanley
Hall’s Pedagogical Seminary. Think in this connec-
tion, too, of the impulse to observation in natural sci-
ence produced by such books as those of Hugh Miller,
Faraday, Tyndall, Huxley, Agassiz, and Darwin.

The new scientific book is different from the old.
The old style book of science gave dead results where
the new one gives not only the results, but a minute
account of the method employed in reaching those re-
sults. An insight into the method employed in dis-
covery trains the reader into a naturalist, an historian,
a sociologist. The books of the writers above named
have done more to stimulate original research on the

Vill THE HALL OF SHEDLS.

part of their readers than all other influences com-
bined. |

It is therefore much more a matter of importance
to get the right kind of book than to get a living —
teacher. The book which teaches results, and at the
same time gives in an intelligible manner the steps of
discovery and the methods employed, is a book
which will stimulate the student to repeat the ex-
periments described and get beyond these into fields
of original research himself. Every one remem-
bers the published lectures of Faraday on chemistry,
which exercised a wide influence in changing the style
of books on natural science, causing them to deal
with method more than results, and thus to train
the reader’s power of conducting original research.
Robinson Crusoe for nearly two hundred years has
stimulated adventure and prompted young men to
resort to the border lands of civilization. A library
of home reading should contain books that stimulate
to self-activity and arouse the spirit of inquiry. The
books should treat of methods of discovery and evo-
lution. All nature is unified by the discovery of
the law of evolution. Each and every being in the
world is now explained by the process of development
to which it belongs.. Every fact now throws light on
all the others by illustrating the process of growth in
which each has its end and aim.

The Home Reading Books are to be classed as
follows:

First Division. Natural history, including popular
scientific treatises on plants and animals, and also de-

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. ix

scriptions of geographical localities. The branch of
study in the district school course which corresponds
to this is geography. Travels and sojourns in distant
lands; special writings which treat of this or that
animal or plant, or family of animals or plants; any-
thing that relates to organic nature or to meteorol-
ogy, or descriptive astronomy may be placed in this
class.

Second Division. Whatever relates to physics or
natural philosophy, to the statics or dynamics of air or
water or light or electricity, or to the properties of
matter; whatever relates to chemistry, either organic
or inorganic—books on these subjects belong to the
class that relates to what is inorganic. Even the so-
called organic chemistry relates to the analysis of
organic bodies into their inorganic compounds.

Third Division. History and biography and eth-
nology. Books relating to the lives of individuals, and
especially to the social life of the nation, and to the
collisions of nations in war, as well as to the aid that
one gives to another through commerce in times of
peace; books on ethnology relating to the manners
and customs of savage or civilized peoples; books on
the primitive manners and customs which belong to
the earliest human beings—books on these subjects be-
long to the third class, relating particularly to the hu-
man will, not merely the individual will but the social
will, the will of the tribe or nation; and to this third
class belong also books on ethics and morals, and on
forms of government and laws, and what is included
under the term civics or the duties of citizenship.

Xx THE HALL OF SHELLS.

Fourth Division. The fourth class of books in-
cludes more especially literature and works that make
known the beautiful in such departments as sculpture,
painting, architecture and music. Literature and art
show human nature in the form of feelings, emotions,
and aspirations, and they show how these feelings
lead over to deeds and to clear thoughts. This de-
partment of books is perhaps more important than
any other in our home reading, inasmuch as it teaches
a knowledge of human nature and enables us to un-
derstand the motives that lead our fellow-men to
action.

To each book is added an analysis in order to aid
the reader in separating the essential points from the
unessential, and give each its proper share of atten-
tion, |

W. T. Harris.

WasuHineron, D. C., November 16, 1896.

PREFACE.

Tue changing greens of the ocean, the wim.
ple of its waters when at peace, abide among
the pleasantest memories of my early childhood.
Glimpses into the sea, as pictured by Fouqué,
still have fascinations surpassing fact or fiction
of these later days.

This little book is published with the hope
that it may lead to a fuller study of some of
the most interesting and most beautiful crea-
tions in Nature. Books upon marine shells,
either not too expensive or too learned for com-
mon use, are few; hence it is hoped that this
little volume may help to awaken an interest
in the sea and its treasures, which can but grow
with the years and afford an ever-widening and
deepening source of delight and of profit.

Pearls let slip from their broken string, led
—in the story—to the hidden casket. So may

X1

xii °° | THE HALL OF SHELLS. > 2am

these simple studies be like bits ‘of pe

wampum, leading to a thesaurus wher

Mrs. A. S. Tarps

treasure trove.

UNIONVILLE, OHIO, July, 1897,

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER
J.—FouR PEOPLE AND THE HALL OF SHELLS

IJ].—THE MERMAID’S TEA SERVICE .
I1].—Purpuras.—MUREXES
IV.—MIcROscoPIC SHELLS .
V.—IANTHINA.—TRITONIA |
VI—SEA SECRETS

VII.—A PorRTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR.—THE MEDUSZ FAM-
GY. ‘ ;

VIII.—PrArRLs.— MorHER-OF-PEARL

1X.—F LOWERS OF THE SEA.—STORY OF THE MERMAID’S
LACE s e e rh es 6

X.—THE ARGONAUT.—THE NAUTILUS
XI.—RocKED IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP .
XII.—Gay, SAD SCHEVENINGEN
XITI.— AN ANCIENT FAMILY.
XTV.—BARNACLES |
XV.—A SEA FAN AND A SEA PARABLE.

XVI.—A stTormM.—Razor FISHES.—ByssuUs SPINNERS.—
STONE EATERS,—LIGHTED TOMBS.

XVII.—OLIvEs : : !
XVIII.—GrowTH OF SHELLS .
X1X.—“ THINGS UNRECK’D OF” .
XX.—TROUBLE . : : ; ; :

Xill

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hoe teee

CS atte!

Os

FA
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“ee 4

LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.

FACING
PAGE

Abalones . : ‘i ae - Frontispiece
Listening to the smooth-lipped shell; Triton variegatus . 19
Pilgrim wearing his badge of knighthood . ; oP ee
The legend of the Tyrian dye. : : : ; : = 28
The comb of pearl . : ; . 2g
““One-seated shallops whose boatmen have departed” . some OE
Hydroids and jelly-fish . : : : : 2, 06
Pearl-producing shells. ; 5. GF

The mermaid’s lace . : : : a pate

The argonaut . 3 : : . 84
Scheveningen shell-gatherer . : : : ; + £06
A sea lily 2 : : : : : Be

Fishing for sea cucumbers in the Philippine Islands; Holo-
thurids . : , ies
Barnacles . : : , =. ato
A fan gorgon; Hermit crab . ; = het

Ianthina, communis, or violet snail, with float supporting
eggs; Patella vulgata; Empty shell of Ianthina; Ensis
ensis, or razor shell . : : ; . 189

Conus textile; Conus imperialis ; Oliva scripta; Oliva por-
phyrea; Phasianella ventricosa; Murex princeps . sco POE

XV

a

t
t

ANALYSIS OF HALL OF SHELLS,
WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY.

Tur following paragraphs are intended more as helps
to those who may wish to continue studies here begun
than as any perfect analysis of chapters. The books which
have been especially helpful in preparing these studies are
here indicated, and their helpfulness acknowledged.

As will be seen, authorities are sometimes referred to
and studies suggested which do not relate to shells at all,
but from the nature of this little volume have seemed:to
belong here.

CHAPTER I.—Introduction of our friends the Bremelys
to the new minister, and the ocean whose name is Peace.
Interest in the starfish and the Haliotis begun ; the mouth
and stomach of the former indicated, and the nervous sys-
tem of the latter. For further understanding of these con-
sult zodlogies and encyclopedias. For runes of the North-
men read the Sagas, Scandinavian mythology, and Odin,
by Carlyle. The works of Fouqué, whom Richter chris-
tened “The Valiant,” furnish weird and graceful tales of
the sea. Read the classics, in original or translations.

CHAPTER IJ.—The Pecten and Patella have been used
as plates and drinking vessels at different times and by
various nations ; the former served as a badge of knight-

hood. The beauty and wonderful construction of the
9 XVil

XVII THE HALL OF SHELLS.

mollusks tenanting these shells surpass the marvelously
contrived houses in which they live. The power of adhe-
sion possessed by the Patella and its ability to sustain
great weights should be tested by those who have aecess
to seacoasts. Read Mollusca, their Shells, Tongues, Eyes,
and Ears, by Philip Henry Gosse, F'. R.S. Examine com-
mon garden snails, comparing their eyes with those of the
Pecten upon the seacoast.

CHAPTER IJI.—The extensive use of Purpuras and
Murexes in the ancient dying of purples is shown by the
little mountains of shells still lying in vicinities where
this industry was plied. The coloring matter—but a drop
—contained in a veinlike sac. The Purpura the crest of
the city of Tyre. Study Tyre, and learn of the caldron-
like cavities in the rocks where these shells were crushed.
Compare the shells of this family, noting how the whorls
of some of these shells are thickened by varices or nodes,
indicating rest periods in growth; also the immense de-
velopment of the last whirl in some; the elongated spines
in others. ,

CHAPTER IV.—Observe with a strong microscope the
beauty of coil and polish in the most minute shells.
Where living specimens can be examined the tenants of
these diminutive shells will be found to possess as compli-
cated and delicate organisms as those of larger growth.
Study sand from any sea beach. Shake the sand and
atoms from sponges on sale, then count and examine the
treasures you will find. |

CHAPTER V.—Undine finds a “sea horn” among her
shells. It is the shell Neptune’s trumpeter is fabled to
have used to still the tumult of the sea. Tritonia tritonis |
used as a teakettle, the operculum its cover. Janthina fra-
gilis, preserved through the beating of waves and the
grinding of sand, bears its egg capsules beneath a float,
and buoyed up upon the tossing seas the delicate creatures
are born to the purple.

The horny operculum of land snails may be seen, and

ANALYSIS OF HALL OF SHELLS. x1x

its connection by strong muscle with the animal tested.
Look up in an encyclopzedia how the cartilaginous air vesi-
cles composing the egg float of the sea snail are secreted
and how attached.

CHAPTER VI.—The dip net brings up marvels un-
dreamed of before; the brine and mud become full of les-
sons; hydroids, scalaria, stomapod, and Sapphirina give
up their secrets. The sea bottom is shown by science to
be more than a fairyland. A dip net may be used in study
in either salt or fresh water. Read The Bottom of the
Sea, by T. Sourel. ;

CHAPTER VII.—The Physalia or Portuguese man-of-
war is sometimes driven up from the tropic seas and

stranded. It is one of the most interesting of the Meduse
- family; armed with poison-filled tentacles which are its
weapons of defense, and by them its food is obtained. The
study of the Meduse, either in books or actual hfe, watch-
ing development, will fill many days with delightful em-
ployment. In fresh water, common Hydra may be found
under leaves of aquatic plants. Cut them in pieces and see
their power of reproduction from the severed pieces. Turn
them inside out and see the result.

CHAPTER VIII.—Origin of pearls was formerly ac-
counted for by drops of dew becoming solidified. Pearls
are formed over hard, offensive matter within the folds of
the mantle, also secreted and used as nacre by the animal
in mending points of irritation. Pearls most highly
esteemed by all nations and at all times. Pearls are of
various colors and each color has its peculiar votaries.
The pearl Cleopatra drank questioned by science.

The rainbow shells of the Haliotide called Awabzi in
Japan, abalone in California. The iridescence of their
nacreous lining due to the laminations of nacre secreted
by the animal and irregularly overlapping in delicate
films. Read Precious Stones, by Harry Emanuel.

CHAPTER I[X.—Term Algc now includes much less
than formerly, many specimens once held as vegetable

e THE HALL OF SHELLS.

now consigned to animal kingdom. Have been variously
classified, and the old classifications abandoned or giving
place to those relating more particularly to structure and
development.

Alge draw their sustenance from the water, loving
best the quiet seas of temperate zones, and depending
upon light for their coloring. Find authority for the
story in studies upon the ancient art of Venetian point
lace.

To secure and preserve the most delicate varieties of
seaweed, slip a paper under them while floating in the sea
or a dish of water, raise carefully, arranging any imper-
fect points with fine camel’s-hair brush or the point of a
pin. Kelp must be pressed between oiled paper or pieces
of muslin on account of the glue it contains. A gatherer
of seaweeds when questioned regarding many varieties
replied, ‘Oh, nobody knows!” Here, then, is a realm
waiting and luring investigation. |

CHAPTER X.—Argonaut and nautilus—both cephalo-
pods—are quite unlike in many points, yet their names
have been indiscriminately used. There is a similarity in
the form of their shells; that of the argonaut is, however,
thin and [brittle, while the shell of the nautilus is thick
and strong. This latter is divided into chambers, hence
called the chamberéd nautilus. It is interesting to study
the fossil species of these shells.

CHAPTER XI.—The family Veneride contains many
beauties long ago dedicated to Venus. Varieties of these
shells are numerous, but all more or less beautifully seulp-
tured and pictured. The value the aborigines attached to
the round clam of the Atlantic coast has been preserved
in its name Venus mercenaria. Clams may be studied in
salt and fresh waters, the number and character of the
teeth in their hinges observed. ‘The nervous system can
be, with care and patience, worked out in the clam or
fresh water mussel.”

The family Chitonide are curiously constructed, en-

ANALYSIS OF HALL OF SHELLS. xxl

abling the animal to accommodate itself to rounded sur-
faces. Its shell consists of eight pieces.

CHAPTER XII.—Scheveningen, Holland’s famous and
fashionable resort, has its two villages and its two lives.
The character of its people seems invigorated by their hard-
ships. Its sand dunes, its sand beach, and its novel bath-
ing arrangements are well given in Holland and its Peo-
ple, by De Amicis.

CHAPTER XIII.—The Hehidermata is a spiny family
as well as a family of distinction and beauty, all adhering
more or less closely to the example and characteristics of
their ancient ancestry. If possible, study living starfish,
the fossils of this family, and compare the plan of the leath-
ery exterior of Holothurians with the delicate plates of the
Hehinus miliaris, and examine the spines of the latter and
their wonderful adjustment.

CHAPTER XIV.—In external appearance barnacles re-
semble mollusks, in organism they are crustaceans. The
changes accomplished in their various stages are explained
in works upon zoology.

CHAPTER X V.—The Gordonide, which were long be-
lieved to be singular and gorgeous sea plants, arenow known
as the home and work of polypi. Some grow in long branch-
like extensions, others look like network of jewels. Their
relatives are the polypi—creators of the corals. The soft
bodies of these builders are uniform in structure and close-
ly adhere to their enlarged type—the sea anemone. Ex-
amine and compare structure of different corals.

CHAPTER X VI.—Storms destroy many shells while oth-
ers equally fragile are lifted to places of safety upon the
crest of the waves. Some burrow in the sand, as the Si-
phonida, and are discovered by the jets of water they spout
out when disturbed. Others are moored by cables of their
own spinning: these are the byssus spinners, and notches
may be observed in shells of this kind allowing of the
passage of the byssus, which the animal attaches at will.
Borers also excavate retreats in wood or rock, even some-

XX1l THE HALL OF SHELLS.

times completely burying themselves in sepulchers of their
own making. See tke work of pholades in the columns of
the ancient temple of Serapis, at Pozzuolis.

CHAPTER X VII.—Among the most beautiful of shells
_ are those of Olivide. The markings of some suggest
delicate cuneiform and picture writing. The external sur-
face of these is pictured entirely different from the deco-
rations on layers just below. These mollusks have the
ability to dissolve away earlier formed volutions. Study
olives and cone shells in Structural and Systematic Con-
chology, by George W. Tryon.

CHAPTER X VIII.—Shelis were once parts of the a
or delicate films secreted by and thrown off from it: these
harden, and unite with other tissues previously thrown off.
Observe these layers joined to each other as shown in the
more solid shell—the Cassides, for example.

The color of shells also the secreting work of the man-
tle ; tints dependent upon light. Still, how is a mystery.
Observe under valves of shells where light has not
reached.

CHAPTER XIX.—See Land Shells, published by Ameri-
can Tract Society, for lessons upon the eyes of snails, and
apparent affection among them. Sounds are produced.
by some varieties of sea slugs. Auditorial nerves are dis-
covered in some shellfishes. Their whole surface ex-
tremely sensitive. |

CHAPTER X X.—In the family Cyproeide we find the
beautiful porcelain shells which change their exquisite
markings with different stages of growth. In this family
members of the genus Ovulum are beautifully enameled,
‘ put lack the coloring of the Cyprea.

f = t

FOUR PEOPLE ——
(D THE HALL OF SHELLS. —

: ”

*
“2
*
ft

O ever-solitary sea,

Of which we all have found
Somewhat to dream or say—the type

Of things without a bound—
Love, long as life, and strong as death ; woke

Faith, humble as sublime; “sue
Eternity, whose large depths hold

The wrecks of this small Time.

Miss MULOCK.

And Nature, the old nurse, took
The child upon her knee,
Saying, “ Here is a story book
Thy Father has written for thee.”
fe LONGFELLOW. ~

2

I.

FOUR PEOPLE AND THE HALL OF SHELLS.

“Oxrp Neptune’s napping!” said Tom, as he
watched the waves that played as lightly as a
baby’s fingers with the sands upon the shore.

Far out, the sea was blue as bluest ame-
thyst; slowly circling toward the land the
Waves grew green and opaline; their jewels
flashed a moment in the sun and were drawn
back again into the sea.

Miss Bremely, to whom Tom had spoken,
seemed under the same spell as the ocean; her
eyes held in their blue depths a dreamy look
of peace; the sunshine touched her hair to
gold, gave a glint of richness to brow and
cheek, and fell in light caress upon her folded
hands.

She answered Tom with a smile, then rous-
ing from her reverie, she said, “Our ocean is

for the nonce living up to Magellan’s good
opinions and to the name the old navigator

gave it so long ago.’
3

A 7 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

Almost before her sentence was finished,
Tom, who spied a stranger working a dip net
down the beach, with true boyish instinct had
sped away to the scene of interest.

Still Miss Bremely mused in the hazy sun-
shine, the water lappimg lightly against the
rock upon which she sat. Bending over its
ledge she gathered tangles of sea kelp the
waves laid at her feet. |

“Thank you, dear old Sea,” she said; “you
are gentle and sing like a siren to-day; to-mor-
row you may roar like an army of Titans.
Ah, well, your calms and silvery tides are all
the dearer to us because of your depths we
can not fathom, your storms we can not
quell.” ;

Kneeling upon the sand she bent her head
until the Incoming waves touched her forehead
with their crystal chrism, then rising she took
her hamper of shells and started along an as-_
cending pathway to a cottage not far distant
among acacia trees. The cottage was her
home. Turning from its main entrance she
chose a winding flight of steps leading to a
small baleony. There she paused before an
open door and a childish voice greeted her
with, “O Cousin Ellen, you look like a mer-
maid !”

FOUR PEOPLE AND THE HALL OF SHELLS. 5

Miss Bremely’s hands were filled with
treasures from the beach and her cheeks flushed
to the delicate tint of sea shells, while the kelp
she had wound about her hat, trailing down,
had caught in the loose wefts of her hair and
fell in tangles of color over the gray folds of
her gown. But far better than the charm of a
mermaid was the gentle grace of a loving spirit
which brought sunshine into the room and joy
to the child face that lay among the pillows.

Following Miss Bremely came Tom. .Tom
was preciously human. ‘l’here was no hint of
mermen about him. His trousers were rolled
to the knees and gave evidence of having been
touched by the waves. He carried his hat
piled with limpets, spirals, and shining aba-
Jones, while his many bulging pockets sug-
gested scores of hidden treasures.

- Undine, the child among the pillows, was
Lom’s little sister,—though Undine was not her
name at all. She was christened Gertrude.
It had been her mother’s name, and seemed to
_ belong to the little girl whose cheerful spirit
and gentle grace made her so lke the sweet
mother who had been borne away over the
mystical seas by the same bark that brought
the little girl to earth. Her father’s niece,
Miss Bremely, was as mother and companion

ce

6 | THE HALL OF SHELLS.

to the child, and, seeing her love for the sea, it
was she who had called her Undine; and Un-
dine she had become to every one saving her
father. To him she was always Gertrude, and
the name fell from his lips with a caressing
tenderness as if he spoke to the sweet mother
in heaven as well as to the child upon earth.
Tom’s little sister was as frail as he was
sturdy, and to alleviate the child’s weariness
when constrained to lie for months among her
pulows, Miss Bremely wove her tales of the
sea. At one time it was arune of the North-
men, terrible with dragon ships, jétuns, and
stormy seas, but beautiful with love and valor.
At another it was a bit of classic lore made so
simple and charming that Undine forgot her
pain and longed for the time when she could
read such wonderful stories herself. But even
more fascinating than these were the descrip-
tions of coral groves through which the Undine
of Fouqué’s charming stories walked, and the
gardens, fathoms down, where gay-tinted flow-
ers of the sea unfolded their delicate frondlike

branches, independent alike of sunshine and ~ q

shower.

She had wondered why such gardens grew
far from any mortal sight, and Miss Bremely
answered :

FOUR PEOPLE AND THE HALL OF SHELLS. 7%

‘There may be eyes that read these gospels
Other than the eyes of men.”

~ When the child was busy, one day, sorting
her shells, Miss Bremely told her of Ossian’s
lordly cave with its “hall of shells where kings
and warriors feasted,” and Undine had asked
that, because of her love for the sea and be-
cause her name was that of a sea maiden, her
room might be a hall of shells. Her cousin
consented upon the conditions that Undine
learn the names and what she could of the
haunts and habits of her treasures. So Un.-
dine’s room, opening toward the ocean, became
a little hall of shells, and those who loved her
brought their treasures into it, until it was
growing to look like an ocean cave or a mer-
maid’s throne room.

It was here that Miss Bremely and Tom
came after their walk upon the strand. Miss
Bremely placed her basket of shells upon a
table by the bed, while Tom, with more devo-
tion than discretion, dumped his dripping treas-
ures upon the coverlet before his sister.

Miss Bremely’s smothered “O Tom!”
was unheard as Tom, with hands deep in his
bulging pockets, exclaimed :

“Old Pacific must have been thinking
about you, Undine; our cove was full of

|
|
|

Q THE HALL OF SHELLS.

shells. Guess I’ve found you some new ac-
quaintances. Just look at that beauty—pink
as a flower! ‘The new minister was down on
the beach. He said that shell was a great trav-
eler and had come from the tropic seas.

“Undine, that minister knew me! Said he
saw me at church. I didn’t s’pose ministers
ever saw boys. Our other minister never did.
I wouldn’t wonder if Dr. McLean—that’s the
new minister’s name—knew ‘most as much as
Cousin Ellen does about the ocean and its in-
habitants. He showed me where to look to
find the mouth and stomach of a starfish; they
are right handy together, I tell you! He says
starfish are very fond of oysters. You wouldn't
s’pose they could open an oyster shell, would
you? But they can; they just put that queer
mouth of theirs close to the closed edge of the
oyster shell and inject a bitter liquid into the
shell; Mr. Oyster don’t like the dose and opens
his valves, in walks the starfish and eats ‘ oys-
ter on the half shell’ without as much as a
thank you! Dr. McLean says these starfish
have a cousin that grows on a long stem like a —
flower.

“See all these rainbow colors,” he con-
tinued, displaying a brilliant Halotis. “Dr.
McLean says the animal that lived in this shell

FOUR PEOPLE AND THE HALL OF SHELLS. 9

had a heart and a digestive and nervous sys-
tem. He told me what these little ‘portholes’
along the top are for, and showed me where to
look to find a limpet’s eyes.

“T never knew before that ministers cared
about shells. I didn’t s’pose they could talk
about much, ‘cept ’Gyptians, Hebrews, and orig-
inal sin!”

After a moment’s pause, he added con-
pecuiely, er. McLean’ 8 very interesting for a
minister.”

By this time Tom’s pockets were emptied,
and Undine’s eyes sparkling over her treasures ;
the strands of kelp, too, were untangled from
Miss Bremely’s hat and hair. They proved
to be very fine specimens, and were placed in
a press to dry, with strips of muslin on either
side to prevent their adhering to the paper of
the press.

[ERMAID’S TEA SERVICE,

Shells are at once the attraction of the untutored sav-
age, the delight of the refined artist, the wonder of the
philosophic zodlogist, and most valued treasure of the
geologist. They adorn the sands of the sea-girt isles and
continents now; and they form the earliest “ footprints
on the sands of time” in the history of our globe.—CAR-
PENTER.

! ... L have seen
A curious child applying to her ear
The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell,
To which, in silence hushed, her very soul
Listened intently and her countenance soon
Brightened with joy ; for murmuring from within
Were heard sonorous cadences, whereby, :
To her belief, the monitor expressed
Mysterious union with its native sea.

W ORDSWORTH.
12

| IT.
THE MERMAID’S TEA SERVICE.

Nature reveals most wonderful secrets to
those who love her. Undine, bending over
her treasures with glowing face, uttered many
an exclamation of surprise and delight as she
discovered new friends, or had charming se-
crets revealed to her from the lips of old.

She amused herself by arranging upon her
tray a score or more of shells, delicately tinted,
fair and shining as the rarest china, and not
very dissimilar in shape to many of the dainty
dishes of the day.

“Come, Cousin Ellen,” she exclaimed, “and
see my mermaid’s tea service ! ”

“Others than the Nereids have eaten and
drank from beautiful vessels like these,” said
her cousin. “This,” she continued taking a
shell from the tray, “is a Pecten, or scallop.
One variety of Pecten served as a drinking
cup in early times, and when the ancient chief-

tain, Ossian, with his lordly guests, ‘struck his
13

14 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

sounding shells,’ and when in his hall the ‘shell
of kings was heard,’ it was probably such
scallop cups the warriors clashed.

“ Another Pecten was called the pilgrim’s
shell, and was used by the early Crusaders as
both plate and goblet. This shell was some-
times from four to five inches broad, and found
in abundance on the coast of Palestine. It

was also worn upon the front of the hat as

a badge of knighthood by those who had
performed the sacred pilgrimages or visited a
shrine of St. James. This latter gave it the
additional name of St. James’s shell, its proper
name bemg Pecten Jacobeus.

“The name Pecten means comb, and has
been given these shells because of fie appear-
ance of ribs ornamenting the surface of many
varieties.

“But beautiful as are these shells, the mol-
lusks living m such houses as these are even
more beautiful and instructive.

“By quick opening and shutting of its

valves the little animal moves through the q
water. When ‘at home’ the pretty creature

lies upon one side, its two valves open far
enough to admit of our peering in; there we
see delicate white frmges waving this way and
that, withdrawn and again floating over the

ee

THE MERMAID’S TEA SERVICE. 15

edge of the shell. ‘These are called tentacles,
and among them can be discerned tiny and
brilliant points which are shown by the lens to
shine like diamonds, each rimmed in a setting
of red. ‘These are the eyes of the scallop, and
Divine thought has protected them by the over-
hanging shell rim as kindly and er as
human eyes are shielded. _

“We sometimes find the bright yellow eggs
of this little animal, looking not unlike the
roe of some fishes, but carefully deposited
among the ruffles of the interior.

“The dainty dishes of your tea service are
not all Pectens, however; here are limpets tinted
and polished above the most famous china.
Patelle, or limpets, are found in many varie-
ties ; one upon the western coast of South Amer-
ica is a foot In diameter, and often serves as a
dish. Indeed the name Patella signifies a
dish.

“One is called the ‘cup-and-saucer limpet’
because of the cuplike formation in the inte-
rior of the saucerlike shell. Another here
upon your tray is called the ‘keyhole limpet’
on account of the tiny aperture you see in the
apex of the shell.

“Shells of this family have long been used
as ornaments as well as dishes. Necklaces

16 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

have been strung of them, and such are found
in some of the most ancient sepulchers.

“When you are well enough to go down
to the beach you will wonder at the power
of adhesion possessed by these little limpets,
for it is Impossible to remove them from the
rocks without breaking their shells unless they
are surprised by sudden seizure.

“Some authorities say this 1s owing to the
large round foot of the Patella, which is very —
muscular and possessed of a viscous secretion
which aids it as a sucker. The perfectly even
edge of the shell keeps it tight against the
rock, while ‘the power of treating a vacuum’
—a problem too old for your young head—
is said also to enter mto the operation.
Others attribute the adhesion to no muscular
action, but chiefly to the ‘imvisible glue which
exudes from the granulated base of the sole of
its foot,’ as the expansion upon which the ani-
mal moves is called. We find upon removing
one of these little creatures from the rocks
that a sticky secretion is left where the limpet
clung. This gluelike substance is soon dis-
solved by the action of the sea water.

“A weight of from twenty-eight to thirty
pounds has been suspended from the shell of a
limpet attached to a stone; the weight was

THE MERMAID’S TEA SERVICE. 17

sustained by the plucky little animal for some
seconds. Whatever theory may be correct in
accounting for the strength with which these
little creatures cling to their rocky home,
we can wholly agree with Wordsworth who
wrote:
“Should the strongest arm endeavor

The limpet from its rock to sever,

Tis seen its loved support to clasp

With such tenacity of grasp,

We wonder that such strength should dwell
In such a small and simple shell!

“When the water covers his weather-worn
dome, the limpet does a-walking go; but always
returns to the same spot upon the rock and re-
mains fixed while the tides are out, as its gills
were never made for breathing air. When the
rocks are soft, the little limpet wears away
not only his ‘door stone,’ but its circular little
dome reposes in a cavity which its muscular
foot scoops out, and which the shell exactly fits.

“Who would guess this silent little creature
possessor of a tongue twice as long as its shell ?
Stranger still, this mbbonlike tongue is fur-
nished with rows of teeth. The Patella vulgaris
of the British Isles has one hundred and sixty
rows of teeth upon its tongue, and twelve teeth
in a row, making its entire ‘set’ to consist of

18 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

nineteen hundred and twenty teeth. When
not in use mowing the rocks which are coated
with seaweed, the tongue with its rows of shin-
ing teeth is comfortably coiled away in its mys-
terious and wonderfully contrived interior.”

“JT never guessed my mermaid’s dishes held
such a feast of wisdom,” laughed Undine.

“Your pretty shells are finer than the rarest
china, and suggest others that have been simi-
larly used in the early days of our country.

“There are two varieties of pear conch upon.

the Atlantic coast—the Hulgur carica and the
Fulgur canaticulatus—which the aborigines
used as drinking vessels. From the pearly sur-
faces of these shells their white wampum was
cut, which was the shell money as well as
charmed ornament of the Indians; knives were
also cut from these shells.”

Through the open door Undine caught
glimpses of the sea and exclaimed :

“ Dear old Ocean, how I love you! What
treasures you send me! And, Cousin Ellen,
you are my good genie who charm away my
pains; the stories you tell me are better than
fairy tales and make me forget that | am not
strong. I seem, like the old German’s Undine,
to wander away with the ocean sprites and to
know their mysterious and happy life. ‘The

LISTENING TO THE SMOOTH-LIPPED SHELL.
TRITON VARIEGATUS.

THE MERMAID’S TEA SERVICE. 19

sea shouts and laughs and beckons to me, even
my shells are full of sea songs;” and she held
a chambered shell to her ear, talking of its
plaintive murmur, so like the breaking of
waves upon a far-off coast.

A few minutes later she was asleep, the

shell still held to her ear, and a smile upon her
lips—a sign of the pleasantness of her voyage
over sleep’s mysterious sea.

This is what she saw: A quaint little crea-
ture came up out of the waves and stood upon
the sand. It looked like a bit of a crumpled
veil, a weird little wraith made up of frills
and ruiiles, but with a foot so large as to sug-
gest a mistake had been made in the adjust-
ment.

Undine, with her love for all manner of
sea tenants, smiled a welcome, then waited
curiously, uncertain what might be the next
propriety in view of her guest being incognito.
Presently a voice, finer than the vibration of a
spider’s silken string, came to Undine between
the noise of the waves, and the ‘little visitor
announced :

“7 built that pearly palace you are holding
in your hand; J painted its walls and tinted the
ceiling of its chambers. It was my home for
years, how many you can tell by counting the

20 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

thickened varices upon its surface, each of
which marks a year of my life and the season
of rest that came to me after my toils. I pride
myself no one could have fashioned a fairer
dwelling, and when at length I was torn from
it I left its halls filled with memories. Those
smallest coils echo with the songs of life’s
morning; its joys as well as its sorrows are all

repeated there. Upon one side you may seea

pearly scar. It was there that a borer pierced
my walls while the shell was yet tender. The
thrills of horror of that moment still haunt
those small chambers. Rescue came and I
lived to mend the broken wall, but you will
see the scar remains.

“Later the walls of my citadel were again
pierced and the horrible borer once more
sought my life; but again I was delivered.
This -time I had grown too large for these
small chambers, and 1f you will carefully ex-
amine the interior of my house you will see a
partition is built shuttmg off the broken and
outgrown chambers. ‘Those are painful memo-

ries, and mingled with the merrier music in the © ;
coils you may hear cries that are wild and

plaintive. |
“Upon the island sands where I was cast I
once heard a wise man say, ‘Sorrow gives some

THE MERMAID’S TEA SERVICE. O41

of the sweetest strains to life’s music.’ I do
not: know. You may listen and learn for
yourself.

“The next room is filled with the singing
of sirens and laughter of sea nymphs as they
leap from crag to crag under the sea. If you
listen well you may catch, too, the sigh of a
sailor boy as he fell asleep. -

“The outer whirls and the vestibule re-
tain the pleasant murmur of winds through
palms and spice trees of a sea-girt island, the
pleasant lapping of waves upon the sand, and
the laughter of bathers in the surf. Through
all and above all is heard the ceaseless roar of
the ocean.

“J can not explain to you the mysterious
union between myself and my native sea,
whereby sighs and sobbings as from a heart
oppressed become forever my heritage.

“But the gray old sea has a secret, a mys
terious and terrible sorrow. By the thought
of it he is transformed, and white with rage he
breaks rocks to atoms and tears continents in
his fury. Again he falls to sobbing so piteous-
ly that we all sob with him. The secret of his
sorrow ‘is a long, sad tale; but I will tell it to
you, and why he moans and raves, why he sobs
and sighs, Listen!”

22 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

At this up sped a white wave from the

sea. Ot caught the little ruffled and frilled ©

wraith of the shell, and with a single sweep
drew her into its darkest depths, out of sight
forever.

A. limpet, Patella vulgata, with its Pe

like house, 1s shown in our engraving, in which
are also the sea snails and the razor-shell.

The illustration of the Palmer or Pilgrim |
shows the manner in which scallop shells were

worn as badges of a holy knighthood. An
empty St. James’s shell—Pecten Jacobeus—
hes in the left foreground of the picture, while
in the right is a shell with its livmg inmate,
displaying the delicate fringelike tentacles as
seen playing lightly in the water. when the
valves of the shell are slightly opened.

Between these lies a //usus or spindle shell,
well named—long, slender, thin-lipped, and
without varices. |

Upon each side are arranged several species
of Serpula, which look like little stone ser-
pents with their plumed and crimson crests.

Annelids they are, their shelly, twisted tubes

twining round and fastening themselves upon
shells, stones, and other submarine objects,
sometimes completely covermg them. ‘The
dwellers in these calcareous, contorted tubes

_ FO Te ee) nn es ae one

PILGRIM WEARING HIS BADGE

OF

KNIGHTHOOD.

qi

Pt Regret

ae

Lat

THE MERMAID’S THA SERVICE. 23

are themselves gay with color; indeed, the sea
folk in general delight in rich and delicate hues,
if we may judge from their beautifully painted
bodies and dwellings.

The tubelike homes which these gay sea
worms inhabit, are of their own construction
from lime and cement which their bodies se-
erete, and each is furnished with a curious
door which the owner of the fortress is able to
close upon the slightest alarm with hghtning
rapidity.

The different varieties of Serpula are inter-
esting and attractive embellishments to our
aquariums, and the marvelous arrangement of
delicate membranes and muscular fibers of
these extremely sensitive organisms well repay
our study.

D
ea
3
=
=)
=

’

JRPURAS.

The beggar wears thy purple as his own.

a5 | Miss MULOCK.
es | Who would be ss
A mermaid fair, at
Singing alone,
eS ‘Combing her hair. 9
ie Under the sea, | pre
; In a golden curl a
With a comb of pear! ? | |

26

Ill.
PURPURAS.—_MUREXES, _

Looxine over the shells upon the table,
Miss Bremely found a pretty tuberculated shell
of the Muricide family. She told Undine its
name—Purpura emarginata.

“Tt has a pretty relative,” said Miss Breme-
ly, “which is used by the South Sea Islanders _
as a drinking cup, and both belong to that
famous family which yielded the royal purple
dye anciently so highly prized by those who
wore ‘soft raiment’ and dwelt in ‘kings’
houses.’

“The dye was a colorless fluid which became
purple upon exposure to the sun; it was but a
drop, and secreted in a veinlike sac near the
head of the little Miwrex, No wonder that
purple stuffs were costly, bemg valued, we
are told, as high as two hundred dollars a
pound.

“ ‘To-day, beside the ruined city which gave
its name to these es he other ruins—piles

4 7

98 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

of shattered homes of the Alwrex trunculus or
Tyrian rock shell.

“The centuries have preserved a pretty

the colormg of purple. It has an idyllic charm,
and brings the people of that old city, whose
crest was a Purpura shell, near enough to be
our kin.- A pretty Tyrian maiden, so runs the
tale, was tripping along the sea sands; her pet
was a dog that sported at her side; in his play
he took a shell in his mouth and crushed it;
soon the dog’s white hair was dashed with the
richest purple. ‘The pretty maiden had a lover
whom no undertaking daunted ; she showed to
him the beautiful color upon the hair of her
pet, and begged that she might have a robe of
the same rich hue. Not many days thereafter
the hero-lover brought the pretty maiden the
first robe of royal purple ever worn.

“Other members of this family have also
furnished the purple dye. At one place in
southern Greece there is a little ‘mountain of
shells’ of the Murex brandaris, crushed for
their purple. Several of the Purpuras were
similarly used. Both Murices and Purpuras
feed upon mollusks, boring through their shells
with their hard-toothed proboscis. ‘They are a
numerous family, and at home im all seas,

THE LEGEND OF THE TYRIAN DYE.

REN MEN HABE Er el tn sabia he thts RE a we nner

eh reverent reson

aienditenedee ELL te |

»

See Se See Ret 9 er a eh Haan ng Sem ate,

AS ti ne ats ent

THE COMB OF PEARL.

PURPURAS—MUREXKHS. 99

though the largest and most beautiful are
found in the tropics.

“The regularly arranged spines upon many
of the shells of this family give them a curious
and to some varieties a very beautiful appear-
ance. The ‘black murex’ (Murex radix), with
its decorations like fringes of brown and black,
comes from the tropics, and is a beautiful shell.
Its rival, however, is the ‘rose murex’ (Alurex
palma-rose) from Ceylon, bordered with rich-
est brown and lined with delicate rose.

“The ‘woodcock shell’ (Alurex tennispina)
is a singular, spiny variety of J/urex, with a
long and slender beak. It is called Venus’s
comb. This and the followmg one are the
shells the poets call the ‘comb of pearl,’ and
sing of how with it the mermaid

“Sits on diamond rocks,
Sleeking her soft, alluring locks.

Murex tribulus, found in the Indian seas, has a
pearly shell ae very thin, regular, and elon-
vated spines.”

Where the mermaid is seen in our picture
combing her hair with her comb of pearl, the
beautiful Murex tennispina is the “comb”;
and the large number of long, parallel curved
spines and the recurved shorter ones with

30 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

which it is adorned are plainly seen at the
bottom of that page, where is the larger illus-
tration of the same shell.

The lurex princeps is the spiny shell
shown among the olive and cone shells. It is:
a beautiful variety, found upon the west coast
of South America, 1s sometimes five inches in
length. Its ribs are white, contrasting beauti-
fully with its spines and shadings of chestnut
brown.

The Muricide, however, are not all regarded
as lovely. It is a A/urex which 1s one of the
worst enemies of the oyster, piercing its shell
and sucking the sweet juices from within. So
voracious is this depredator that a large num-
ber of the bivalves are often required to fur
nish it a single meal, the young Murex select-
ing the young oyster shells, which are most
easily pierced, while the old A/wrex feasts upon
the large oysters, finding the labor of boring
through their hard shells but whets its appe-
tite for more. The oyster farms in some parts
of Europe are only preserved by fishers being
employed incessantly to destroy these depre-
dators.

21 oo t

Nothing imperfect or deficient left |
Of all that He created.

Karth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God ;
But only he who sees takes off his shoes.
Mrs. Bro

° re

IV.
MICROSCOPIC SHELLS,

Tue sand among the shells was brushed
into a tray, and with a microscope Undine
found it contained tiny shells with colors and
coils equaling even the large spirals and irides-
cent abalones which had so taken 'Tom’s fancy.
| Miss Bremely told her that in a pound of

sand taken from the Adriatic, by computation
two hundred thousand individuals were found ;
many more must have suffered wreck from the
rough tossmg and rubbing of the waves and
sand. In an ounce of sand from Cape May it
was estimated over thirty-five thousand indi-
viduals of a single species were discovered.

She was told that the sands of some beaches
are composed almost entirely of shells, vari-
ously and perfectly formed, while the compli-
cated organisms and harmonious contrivances
of the animals inhabiting them must fill the
beholder with amazement.

Undine sat for a long time picking one

24 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

speck after another out of the sand, her aston-
ishment and delight ever increasing as she
found such tiny spirals beautifully polished or
- clear as glass, with every coil perfect. Baby
bivalves were there with carvings so delicate
only a strong glass could trace them. From
some of the shells finest of threadlike feelers
protruded, showing such livmg atoms as per-
fect and as wonderful as are the houses they
inhabit.

“QO Cousin Ellen!” she exclaimed, as the
revelation overwhelmed her, “ how precious our
world must be to God! He has crowded even
its unseen places with such beauty and made
so perfect, things no human eye can see!”’

“His wonderful works teach of him with-
out whom ‘was not anything made that was
made,” replied her cousin. “In them he
gives us glimpses of his character. In his
creations, ‘never more great than when mi-
nutely great,’ he shows us his love for what is
perfect—the beautiful we callit. He keeps
these examples everywhere before us, as if he
would lure us to love what is perfect and to
become such ourselves.”

ate ov

<(
A
Oy
cy
I
=
7
a
A
—
a
eo
Zi
—

Walled by ranks of steadfast giants,
Fringed by leagues of shining sea.

—

pi > -

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea,
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathéd heen

WoRDSWORTH. |
36

ve
TANTHINA.—TRITONIA.

Ty another land—beloved of the Bremelys
—it was winter. In their California home the
petals of flowers fell hght as snowflakes, and
the roaring of the ocean was to them in place
of the tumult of the north wind.

To the east of them blue mountains en-
camped, with their feet among flowers and their
broad shoulders to the siroccos that swept over
the plain.

Mr. Bremely ae in this valley of flowers,
roses might fiush his little daughter’s cheeks,
where through all the ten years of her life
only hes had bloomed.

At the close of his busy days her room
was the sacred spot to which he hastened, and
while he bent over her couch or her golden.
head rested upon his shoulder, he looked with
a longmeg that was pain, for signs of coming
strength which phy rsicians had pr pene
Baeht follow this sojourn by the sea

oF

938 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

Every evening the child rejoiced in receiv-
ing some simple token of the love that had
filled his thoughts all day. Sometimes it was
fruit grown mellow and sweet in California’s
amber sun, or a cluster of roses fragrant as
love.

This evening of which we write a box of
shells was before her, and her father rejoiced
in seeing her eyes sparkle as the eyes of happy
children who are well.

She took a long, iil a shell from the box,
exclaiming, “Cousimm Ellen, papa has brought
me a sea horn to call my mermaids to their
banquet!” And placmg the shell to her lips
she blew mimic rounds upon her horn until a
flush came into her cheeks, and seeing it her
father’s eyes were dim for joy.

“You pretty purple thing,” she said, as she
selected another shell from the collection her
father had brought her, “are you a shell at all,
I wonder, or are you a sea violet?”

The greater part of the shell that she held
in her hand was purple as the veins in her
wrist, but to add to its delicate beauty the
spire was shaded to white.

“ Tanthina fragilis is its name, or the ‘sea
snail’ it is sometimes called,” said her Cousin
Ellen. “It is one of the daintiest and most

IANTHINA.—TRITONIA. 39

fragile things that sails the seas. Its thin,
pellucid, gossamerlike shell can not bear the
rough handling of the waves. The snail that
lives in this amethystine house swims by means
of an air float secreted by and attached to its
foot. To the under side of this float the egg
capsules are securely fastened, and here the
baby Lanthina is ‘born to the purple.’

“Your trumpet shell is a Zrztonia, and in-
stead of sounding for a banquet, mythology
says the Tritons who lived in a golden palace
at the bottom of the sea often blew it at com-
mand of Neptune to soothe the restless waves.”

“JT have read that the largest of these
trumpet shells are used as tea kettles by the
people of the Typinsan Archipelago,” said Mr.
Bremely. “The shell has a wire or thong at-
tached to each extremity, and is hung upon a
hook above the fire. The operculum is the lid ©
of this artistic tea kettle, while the spire serves
as its spout.”

“We might imagine sea gods resenting this
common use of their ‘wreathed horn,’ and

‘To the smooth, bright sand beguiled,

raising a ‘tempest in the tea kettle,” laughed
Miss Bremely.
“On the contrary,” replied her uncle, “ I

40 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

fancy the shell that has been honored m my-
thology, painted by artists, and sung in poet’s
lays, now appreciating the beauty there is in
homely use, and when the fire is on and the
water hot, sending forth sweeter songs than
when at the mouth of even Neptune’s trump-
eter himself.”

The scientific name of this artistic tea kettle
is Lriton tritonis.

Another variety, smaller but beautifully
variegated and mottled, 1s the Zriton varie-
gatus, whose habitat 1s the tropic sea in vicinity

of the Philippine Islands.

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VA:
SEA SECRETS.

Weeks passed quickly into months, Every
hour was charmed.

Undine no longer spent the long golden
days among her pillows, but with rounded
cheeks and lips growing red as cherries she
grew each week more and more like the rich
roses and sun-kissed fruits of that happy valley.
As for Tom, his interest in the sea and in min-
isters steadily deepened. He spent many hours
upon the beach with ever-increasing delight,
often in company with the new minister.

“Dr. McLean don’t feed a fellow on the
bare bones of wisdom,” he assured Undine.
“THe tells Just what one wants to know, and
makes it so plain a poor chap like me under-
stands what he’s talking about. I’m s’prised
that ministers know so much about such inter-
esting things.”

“Cousin makes things very plain, and tells

5 43

44 | THE HALL OF SHELLS.

charming stories, too, about the sea,” ventured
~ Undine.

“Oh, course Cousin Ellen’s nice,” responded
Tom; “but she can’t go out and dig in the
shoals and dredge and dip like the doctor.”

Undine had no desire-to depreciate their
good friend, for she, ike Tom, had learned to
love him dearly, and was greatly interested in
what he told them of the old sea’s secrets.

Dr. McLean was a faithful pastor and a
dihgent student. His hours upon the strand
were his recreation, and the little dip net and
improvised dredge brought up for him many
things other than helices and hydroids. To
him the ocean with its vivid and changing
pages was full of the thoughts of God, and he
went down to its study reverently, with the
thought in his heart, “The sea is his and he
made it,’ and it thus became to him full of
sweet sermonry. -

To the boy and girl ilvore lessons had been
tossed to them by the waves in the shape of
shells and seaweeds, these implements—the dip
net and the dredge—opened a new world of
wonders. To the ignorant, the brine and mud
in the trawl would have disclosed only wrig-
gling bits of transparency; tiny beads of glass, ’
opaque or shining, atoms of quicksilver, and

SEA SECRETS. AD

wisps of nothingness; but science detected
hydroids, delicate scalaria, worm cases, salpe,
infant scallops, and marvels of embroidered
embryo known only to science. ‘The most
precious and promising of these in jars of sea
water awaited honorable investigation, while as
to the remainder, with a flat rock serving for
their table, the three strained and stirred, mag-
nified and marveled over the common looking
sand and muddy looking mud, “the maximum
of interest being reached,” Cousin Ellen de-
clared, “when a boy actually forgot the de-
mands of his own stomach in investigating the
stomach of a stomapod !”

When the auspicious day dawned mm which
the treasures waiting in their tanks of sea water
were to give up their secrets, the teacher and
the children sat at a long table with strainers, -
saucers, pincers, and microscopes before them,
while expectation and delight were upon their
faces.

After examining and explaiming several
minute organisms and admiring delicate and
snow-white scalaria, so small as to tax the mi-
croscope and yet perfect in every convolution,
“This,” said the man of science, extricating
from its muddy cradle an atom of transpar-
ency, “1s the Sapphirina ovatolanceolata.”

46 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

“Oh, please drop his baptismal name,” in-
terrupted Tom. “Can’t see such a little chap
if he has a whole alphabet piled up before
him !”

When the small individual with the dis-
tinguished name was arranged for inspection
the doctor explained: “It is one of the glow-
worms that at night frmge the waves with
gold or hang their lamps in the coral groves
and the seaweed gardens.” His listeners were
eager for another of the fairy tales of science,
and he continued: “ Beautiful as are the ocean
depths by the light of day, it is left for night
to reveal marvels of beauty and _ brilliancy
transcending the most vivid and gorgeous of
earthly panoramas.

“Tt is not strange that fairy lore and tales of
wonder ascribe to the sea charmed gardens and
palaces glittering with gold and gems. Even
their wealth of imagery fails to picture the
brilliancy of the scene when under the canopy
of night a strange carnival of light begins.
The sea, then, has no dark and shadowy cor-
ners. Unattractive little brown beings scarce-
ly noticed before, are changed as by magic into
flowers of fire and fruit of gold upon the
branching coral trees. Sea anemones hang
their gorgeous blossoms over the reefs or wave

SEA SECRETS. 47

their mimic rose-hued petals in what seems a
gentle breeze. Dainty fronded ‘sea ferns,’ too
delicate it would appear to bear their own
weight, are strung with what look like jeweled
beads, or hung with infinitesimal electric lamps
that burn and flash with intensest brilliancy.

“Under such floods of phosphorescent light
the pink and purple of the seaweeds take on
more vivid tints, and what was brown before
grows rich-hued as tints of autumn are.

“Upon ‘the diamond ledges that jut from
these dells,’ the self-luminous J/eduse and mi-
croscopic crustaceans seem signaling to each
other by lights of every hue which flicker and
wane but to flash again with brighter glow.”

A PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR.

God hath so many ships upon the seas!

His are the merchantmen that carry treasures,

The men-of-war, all bannered gallantly,

The little fisher boats, and barks of pleasure—

On all this sea of time there is not one

That sailed without his glorious name thereon. _
CARL SPENCER.

Beneath the sunlit wave she swims concealed
By her own brightness ; only now revealed
To sage’s eye that gazes with delight
On things invisible to vulgar sight.
DRUMMOND.
50

rf

scaiiie

‘“‘QNE-SEATED SHALLOPS WHOSE BOATMEN HAVE DEPARTED.”

VII.
A PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR.

THE MEDUSA FAMILY.

“A PortucuEse man-of-war has_ been
stranded below on the beach,” announced Mr.
Bremely, one evening upon his return home.
“Tt will pay you all to go down and see it.”

Tom hastened to impart the information to
Dr. McLean, who promised to join the excur-
sion in the morning. He came and met Un-
dine with the words: “I have brought a Crepi-
dula in which to convey our Aphrodite to the
scene of interest; 1t would be too long a walk
ror-hner,”

Undine laughingly answered: “I know
what a Crepidula is! I have some of the shells
in my cabinet; they look like fairy boats with
a seat in one end, and Cousin Ellen told me
they had been called ‘one-seated shallops whose
boatmen had departed.’ You mean I am to
ride in something nice ; but why call me Aphro-

dite? I don’t know about that long word.”
51 .

59 | THE HALL OF SHELLS.

“ Aphrodite,” explained the doctor, “was a
maiden lovely and loving, whom the old Greeks
said sprang from the foam of the sea: her car
was represented as drawn by a dove or a spar-
row or sometimes a swan. Who or what will
keep us company and be like the dove or the
swan I’m sure I don’t know.”

“Cousin Ellen is like a dove,” lovingly
whispered Undine. ‘Dr. McLean glanced across
at the gentle lady in the soft gray gown, and
the expression upon his face told that he agreed
with Undine.

Tom questioned, “What kind of a boat is.
the Portuguese man-of-war? I can see neither
steain nor sail along our beach,” he added dis-
appointedly.

“We shall find our sie none the less,”
phed Dr. McLean.

After passing down the beach for some dis-
tance ‘l’om suddenly darted toward the water’s
edge, shoutmg: “The loveliest tangles of sea-
weed! All colors!”

“Tom, stop! Don't touch that!” —
Dr. McLean in a voice so stern and command-
ing that Tom stopped at once, startled and
troubled. He never had heard the minister
speak with such severity before. Coming to
'Tom’s side the party now saw a singularly

A PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR. 523

beautiful object stranded, just low enough to
be washed over by the waves. Long ribbon-
like streamers and fringes, purple and rosy
pink, floated out for yards beyond its richly
colored body. Dr. McLean explamed that
the Portuguese man-of-war was a jellyfish be-
longing to the class Acelephw, which means
nettles, many members of this class possessing
a stinging power which makes the name appro-
priate. “Tom,” he continued, “those beautiful
threadlike filaments, which at a glance you took
for seaweeds, are filled with little ceils, and each
cell is a tiny armory where its death-dealing
weapon is kept. If you had touched but one
of those beautifully fringed appendages, even
very softly, every little cell thus touched would
have burst open, thrusting its poison-charged
weapon into your flesh.

“These poison-filled tentacles are its weapons
of defense and are also used in obtaining its
food. The sea animal wounded by a sting from
these lasso cells soon dies and is devoured by
this smgular creature.

“The home of the Portuguese man-of-war is
in the tropics, and only occasionally does one
drift so far into the colder currents. Another
day we will return and see how much is left of
this gay privateer.

A THE HALL OF SHELLS. .

“The whole Meduse family are very curi-
ous and interesting, but none more so than the
Physalia—our acquaintance of to-day,” con-
tinued the doctor, losing no opportunity of
instructing the children, who were delighted
with the tales he told then. “Instances of the
stinging powers of this inoffensive-looking crea-
ture are given, which show that Tom may con-
gratulate himself that he was prompt in obey-
ing orders. There is a story told of a young
sailor who, attracted as Tom was by the beauty
of this jellyfish, sprang into the sea to capture
it as it passed near the ship. When he reached
it the creature entangled him in its threadlike
filaments; in an agony of pain he cried for help
and had barely been drawn on to the vessel
when the intensity of the inflammation pro-
duced by the stings of these tentacles occa-
sioned brain fever.

“The different members of this family in-
habit all seas. Some of them are very large,
reaching to two feet across the disk, with their
tentacular appendages extending like threads
of many colors; others of diminutive size float
in immense shoals, and with their phospho-
rescence illumine the sea till every wave is ‘a
flash of golden fire.’ There seems no end to
the number and variety of these brilliant little

A PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR. 55

creatures resembling drops of animated ice,
tiny crystals of jelly, or floating jewels. Close
study reveals in them organisms quite as mar-
velous as are possessed by sea beauties of larger
erowth. Some looking like translucent glob-
ules are furnished with bands of membranous
fins or pellucid paddles whose ever-varying mo-
tion, under the play of light upon their glitter-
ing surfaces, gives them all the hues of a prism.

“Others are like fairy umbrellas of clearest
crystal dotted with yellow specks along the
margin; these the sages say are eyes. Iring-
ing tentacles, more than a dozen times the
length of the disk, float about them and shim-
mer like threads of fine-spun glass. To com-
plete the fairylike umbrella the queer little
stomach of the medusa hangs like a tiny
handle from its center with the knoblike
mouth at its extremity. Through the trans-
parent canals we can see what this medusa
had for breakfast and watch the process of
digestion.

“The helpful lens enables us to trace the
jellyfish through all its glittering transitions—
from the egg or gemmule to the time when,
tired of a sedentary, budding existence, it re-
turns to the ‘original type’ and shoots off in-
dependently.

56 ot) SE DA Or SHE Ls.

“The immense shoals of these microscopic
animals not only help at night to produce what
is called the ‘phosphorescent sea,’ but by the
light of day give their color to the waves.
Thus the variety known as ‘whale food’ red-
den the sea for miles, and when whalers per-
ceive their ruddy hue upon the waves they
realize they have reached the ‘pastures of the
whales,’ ” . |

By this time their walk had ended and
Tom announced his “thik tank full.” When
the party again visited the spot where they
had left the Portuguese man-of-war, the chil-
dren could find no trace of their singular ac-
quaintance, and but for wiser companions
would have returned home in disappomtment.
They were shown, however, several filmy ob-
jects, scarcely more than an inch across, flat,
flabby, and semitransparent. These they
learned were the air sacs of their jellyfish, and
were told that even a medusa, weighing several
pounds and with many yards of tentacles, when
he dropped his “mortal coil” left only sea
water and air sacs; these latter Tom presented
to Undine as “the skeleton of the Portuguese
man-of-war.” |

The colony of Hydroids growing about a
truncated harp shell in our engraving gives a

>
4
‘
a
‘.

.

Py, : / /

HYDROIDS AND JELLY-FISH.

A PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR. 57

very good idea of the delicacy and beauty of
some of these organisms, while above the Hy-
droids and the harp shell float what look like
shimmering balloons, airy, fairy enough to bear
“sylphs and fays beyond the moon.”

These are jellyfish—Aeduse—first pro-
duced as buds upon the Hydroid, where they
enlarge, until at length they become detached
and float away. ,

Some Hydroids cast upon our sea beaches
and preserved in collections might be taken
for seaweeds, they are so delicate, were it not
for their horny external coverings.

PEARLS.—MOTHER-OF-PEARL.

The cockelle, with heavenly dew so clene
Of kynde, engendereth white pearls rounde.
Old poem.

When we see such forms as these we hardly like to
think that they are secreted by some slimy mollusk, but

would imagine that the mermaids tear off pieces of the —

rainbows where they touch the sea, and carry them to the
cold depths to congeal them into shells —H. A. Ward’s
puegne of Species.

60

VIII.
PEARLS.—MOTHER-OF-PEARL.

FascINATING as was microscopic study, Tom
lost none of his admiration for the abalones, so
lustrous and iridescent, while Undine looked
for seed pearls im every bivalve that came into
her hands.

Dr. McLean told them the pearly lining of
the abalones was called mother-of-pearl, or
nacre, while true pearls were the product of
different bivalves, the best “solidified drops
of dew,” as the Orientals call them—being
found in the pearl oyster (Avicula margarv-
tifera).

“ According to an ancient fable,” continued
the doctor, “oysters rose to the surface of the
water, opened their shells, and received the
drops of dew which were speedily transformed
to ‘white pearls rounde.’ In recognition of
this fable Thomas Moore wrote:

‘Precious their tears as rain from the sky

That turns into pearls as it falls in the sea.
61

62 THE HALL OF SHELLS..

“ Another theory has been that pearls were
always the result of a grain of sand or some
irritating substance entering the shell; the ani-
mal, unable to discharge it, converted it into a
pearl. Hence we are told:

‘Learn from yon Orient shell to love thy foe,
And strew with pearls the hand that brings thee woe.

This is beautifully suggestive, yet seems to
be only haif the story. While irritating sub-
stances are known to be covered by nacre it 1s
believed all pearls are not the result of urita-
tion, but are secreted by the mollusk and held
ready to be dissolved by powerful acids, which
are also of the animal’s secretion, for spreading
over openings made in their shells by the borer.

“Injured shells are often found with their
points of irritation covered with thin lamina-
tions of this nacreous matter.

“ Pearl fishers tell us the little pearl ae
is, sometimes at least, able to expel his jewel.
at will, and often does so when captured ; un-
derstanding this, the fisher places his hand over
the shell so as to close its valves or secure the
pearl if ejected.

“ After possessing himself of all the pearls
in old mussels—the old being the most produe-
tive—the gatherer sometimes deposits the mol-

PEARLS.—MOTHER OF PEARL. 63

lusks in safe and convenient coves where he
may gather the pearls for several years in suc-
cession from the same shells.

“The Chinese, understanding the ability of
these pearl mussels to cover hard substances
with their fluid secretion, which soon hardens
into mother-of-pearl, or nacre, bring their wiles
to bear upon a species of fresh-water mussel—
the Unio Hyria—compelling it to manufacture
pearls to their order.

“They keep the little Unzo im tanks, and
place small shot, bits of shell, and other sub-
stances between the mantle and the valve;
these particles are soon converted into pearls
by the industrious little gem maker.

“They carry their ‘ways that are dark’
still further, and by means of the work of
the mnocent little Unio they impose upon
the credulous and superstitious minds of their
people. They insert a metal image of their
god Buddha within the valves of the mussel,
and in process of time it becomes coated with
the nacreous secretion and—presto !—the im-
age of Buddha in pearl and adhering to the
shell of a mussel! The image commands a
good price and promises great advantage to the
ignorant dupe who sees in it an unanswerable
afirmation of Buddia’s divinity.

64 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

“'The pearl oyster which produces the finest:
pearls of all the pearl-growing bivalves is
found at considerable depth m large shoals
in the Indian Ocean, Gulf of Persia, some parts
of the Pacific Ocean, etc. About thirty thou-
sand people find employment in the pear! fish-
eries of the Persian Gulf alone.

“As many as one hundred and fifty pearls
have been gathered from a single shell.

“Among the other bivalves. producing
pearls is the Pinna or wing-shell, the valves
of which are often two feet long; the best
known variety is the P. nobilis, which mhabits
the Mediterranean, and is especially curious on
account of its byssus.

“Another singular variety is the ham-
mer oyster—Malleus vulgaris—whose ham-
mer-shaped shell is beautifully laminated with
mother-of-pearl. i

“But Tom must hear about his beautiful
abalones,” said the doctor, seeing he held sev- —
eral in his hands. |

“This rainbow shell belongs to the family
Haliotide, of which there are many species,
named according to their slight variations and
the localities which they inhabit.

“ Abalone—the name which we upon this
California coast familiarly use—is a name the

=

SS

HELLS.

S

G

-PRODUCIN

PEARL

PEARLS.—MOTHER OF PEARL. 65

early Spanish settlers gave, and is of doubtful
meaning.

“Shells of this family have their center of
distribution in Australian and adjacent seas.
Quantities abound upon the coast of Japan,
where they are known as ‘ Awadi’ Other
names by which they are often called are ear-
shell, green ear, Omer shell, etc.

“ Haliotis splendens and HH. tubercutata are
the names science has given to the beauties
you have in your hands, Tom.

“ An enormous traffic is carried on in these
shelis so useful in delicate inlaying, in lacquer,
and other ornamental work. ‘The animals in-
habiting these palaces are considerably sought
after for food, while fine pearls have been
found within the mantle of some. The irides-
cent tints of these shells are produced by the
fluid secretion with which the interior of the
shells are lined; this hardens quickly and be-
comes nacre, presenting a beautifully smooth
and polished surface to the tender body of the
animal within. They are also due to the ex-
cessively thin laminations, irregularly overlap-
ping, laid on in delicate semitransparent films.
The thinner the laminations of this nacre mem-
brane the more transparent, and hence the
more lustrous and beautiful, the shell.

66 - THE HALL OF SHELLS.

“You are aware, Tom, with what tenacity
these abalones cling to the rocks, so they can
only be removed by taking the little house-
holder unawares and giving dextrous and sud-
den knocks.”

“Yes,” said Tom, “the people here tell of a
Chinaman who, putting his fingers under one of
these shells in his attempt to pry it from the
rock, was held there by the abalone until the
tide came up and the man was drowned.”

“This tight huggmg of the rock,” ex-
plained the doctor, “is accounted for, I believe,
by the large suckerlike sole of the animal. It
consists of a rounded disk of muscular tissue,
which has marvelous power of adhesion and
brings not a little atmospheric pressure to bear —
upon the shell. Like the limpet, it has a very
viscous secretion, which is a strong factor in
holding it to the rock. _

“The apertures along its dome suggest
round windows high up im some old eastle
wall. They are the openings through which
the gills of the animal are kept in communica-
tion with the surrounding water. The earlier
openings you see are closed—filled up with
shelly matter—but some are always kept
open.” Bi

As the doctor laid down the abalones, Un-

PEARLS.—MOTHER OF PEARL. 67

dine, with a womanly penchant for the dainty
and delicate, reverted to pearls, twirling the
while a ring upon her finger and displaying
the soft luster, the purity, and shght transpar-
ency of its pearly setting. “I have read,” she
said, “ that Cleopatra once dissolved and drank
a pearl. In the story she was called very beau-
tiful, but I can not see how a woman so fool-
ish and vain could have been very beautiful.”

“Yet it is true,’ replhed Dr. McLean;
“her beauty and. power to charm so influ-
enced rulers and warriors that it has been said
if Cleopatra’s nose had been half an inch longer
(so spoiling her beauty) the history of the
world would have been different ! ?

“Nevertheless science is not a little skep-
tical about the pearl which it 1s recorded she
dissolved and drank. It was one of a pair and
was valued at one hundred and fifty thousand
golden crowns. It is now affirmed upon excel-
lent authority that so large a pearl could not
have been dissolved except by means of a pow-
erful acid, and so large a quantity would have
been required that it could never have been
drank with impunity.

“The mate to this pearl, so the authorities
say, was sawn in twain by order of the Em-
peror Severus and dedicated to Venus, being

68 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

used in decorating her statue in the Parthe-
non.

“ Nevertheless the dissolving and drinking
of such a costly draught would scarcely have
surpassed the extravagancies indulged in by
the ancient nations of wealth. Fabulous sums
were paid for pearls, and they were used with
greatest prodigality. Whole crowns were made
of them; idols and images were studded and
encrusted with them; and they were wrought
into the most delicate and beautiful of fabrics.
The earliest records concerning the use of
gems among the ancient Babylonians, Egyp-
tians, and Persians show that pearls were re-
garded as among the richest gifts of Nature.
By the Romans the mania for their possession
was even greater.

“Mithradates, the formidable opponent of
the Romans, as you were reading this morning,
was also not only a lover of wars, but a con-
siderable lover of the arts as well. When he
was conquered by Pompey and his magnificent
collection of gems was taken, quantities of
pearls were found, some of them wrought mto
most exquisite and elaborate designs. Among
them was a portrait of the king himself cun-
ningly fashioned entirely of pearls in mosaic.

“The settings of your ring, Undine,” said

PEARLS.—MOTHER OF PEARL. 69

the doctor, seeing the little girl still twirling
the pearls upon her finger, “are white and lus-
trous and have the polish that pertains to the
very finest pearls. It has been suggested that
this wonderful polish and perfection of luster
which art can not imitate, may have been caused
by the continued friction of the soft body of
the oyster. :

“We hold such pearls as these in the high-
est esteem, but, since there 1s no accounting for
tastes, we find the inhabitants of some other
countries differ from us m their estimation of
these gems. We have been accustomed to
think of pearls as white alone, and we have
thought of them as Nature’s expression of
purity. This is not the case with all admirers
of pearls. The people of India and of China,
for example, see greater beauty in those of a
bright yellow color, while others prefer those
that are pk. Pink pearls, as they are called,
are not all pink, but range in hue from pink to
red or even pale yellow or a dull dead white.
They are generally neither very beautiful nor
very pertect. Others of a black or leaden-gray
color are also sometimes met with, and when
perfect and of a good shape are highly valued.

“As you already know, the Pacific Ocean
yields a rich harvest of these gems, and it

(< e THE HALL OF SHELLS.

seems highly probable that the regions of Cali-
fornia and Panama were known to the ancient
inhabitants of America as rich fisheries. The
hearts of Cortes and his followers were fired
with anticipation and with envy when they
saw the wealth of gems, many of them pearls,
with which the draperies of the wealthy Aztecs
were embroidered and fringed, and their gold
and feather work sprinkled with jewels. By
_ the conquests of the Spaniards in Mexico and
Peru great quantities of pearls were obtained.
Old Spanish historians have recorded wonder-
ful stories of the wealth of the Aztec kings in
pearls, immense numbers of which were exceed- —
ingly fine. They also affirm the familiarity of
these people with the localities from which
they were obtained.” |

FLOWERS OF THE SEA.

No words that I know of will say what these mosses
are—none are delicate enough, none perfect enough, none
rich enough. ... The traceries of intricate silver and
fringes of amber, lustrous, arborescent, burnished through
every fiber into fitful brightness and glossy traverses of
silken change, yet all subdued and pensive, and framed
for simplest, sweetest offices of grace.— RUSKIN.

Hearts there are on the sounding shore,
Something whispers soft to me,
Restless and roaming forevermore,
Like this, the weary weed of the sea;
Bear they yet on each beating breast
The eternal type of the wondrous whole,
Grace unfolding amid unrest,
Grace informing with silent soul.
C. G. FENNER.
72

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ry THE HALL OF SHELLS.

On the surface, foam and roar,
Restless heave and passion dash,
Shingle rattle along the shore,
Gathering boom and thundering crash.

Under the surface loveliest forms,
Feathery fronds with crimson curl,

Treasures too deep for the raid of storms—
Delicate coral and hidden pearl.

These, the strands of a carpet soft,
Richer than mortal ever trod ;

Freed by the current and borne aloft
To show us the hidden work of God.

She begged Dr. McLean to tell of these
delicate sea flowers. He began by saying: “The
term A/g, or seaweeds, is much more restricted
than formerly; it used to embrace many ma-
rine specimens now consigned to the animal
kingdom. Many are the gay dissemblers in
the sea, and we can almost imagine them laugh-
ing together at their successes in so long de-
ceiving the very elect of scientists.

“Linneus, a Swedish naturalist, with great
love for Nature and great skill m guessing her
riddles, was one of the first to see that many
so-called sea plants were sensitive to human
touch, and possessed the organs of animal life.
He catalogued fifty species which he regarded

as seaweeds; we now know of several thou-

FLOWERS OF THE SEA. 165)

sand, though our knowledge of many of these
is quite limited.

“Alge have been regarded as belonging to
one of three classes, according to their color:
the Melanospermee embraced the olive brown
and black; the Lehodospermewe were the purple
and the red; while the Chlorospermee were the
green. ‘This arrangement has been discarded
and various others substituted, relating more
particularly to the structure and development
of the A/gw. These classifications, however,
are still very imperfect, and the nomenclature
of many groups is still undetermined. Wheth-
er man understands and gives them a name or
not, they grow in grace and beauty, perfectly
understood by their Creator and accomplishing
his will.

“They draw their sustenance from the wa-
ter, beng without roots, often fastening them-
selves by a kind of sucker to rocks, shells, and
sea bottoms. Not unfrequently their hold be-
comes loosened or their branches broken, so
we find them tossed by the waves upon the
strand or carried in tangles through the waters,
far from their native colonies. So great are
these masses as sometimes to hinder the pas-
sage of ships in their courses. Varieties of
kelp in pinly of the Falkland Islands are

"6 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

twisted by the waves into enormous vegetable
cables several hundred feet long and thicker
than the human body. There are bays where
thousands of people have found employment
gathering these spoils after an ocean storm.
“The Sargassum bacciferum is the Gulf
weed, which always floats and is not unfamil-
lar to voyagers upon the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans. The localities where this seaweed is
most abundant are called Sargasso Seas.
“Seaweeds love best the quiet waters of
the temperate seas, avoiding the cold waves of
the frigid zones and the more heated currents
of the torrid. If found in these, they lack the
delicacy of the mosses in the temperate zone.
Different seas and different localities have their
distinct sea flora, often found in such immense
colonies as to give their color to the sea.
“They are dependent upon light, hence
are not found below one thousand feet, or
the depth to which hght ceases to penetrate.
Light is their painter also: mosses near the
surface, catching its fullest rays, are green
like terrestrial vegetation; the brilliant reds
and delicate pinks are to be found upon rocks
at no great depth and near the coasts; those
in the deeper seas grow brown and abundant,
and their somber hues but enhance the bril-

FLOWERS OF THE SEA. ra

liancy of those that have enjoyed more of the
kisses of the sun. They wave lke plumes,
like gayest ribbons are tossed in the currents;
some as fine as frostwork can scarcely be dis-
cerned, while others in mimic forests grow to
a thousand feet.”

Miss Bremely remarked: “There is one
variety of seaweed which has passed into his-
tory because of its influence upon the industry
and the lives of a far-away people. Shall I
tell you about it?” She read her answer in
the eager faces turned toward her; that of the
good doctor beamed with especial pleasure as
he listened, and Undine wondered that she
had not known before that Dr. McLean lked
seaweeds so well.

“THE MERMAID’S LACE.”

The little island of Burano lies like a gem
in the blue Adriatic. In the early days its
inhabitants were simple fisher folk, spreading
their nets at night in the coves of the sea; im
the morning, carrying their fish in rude gon-
dolas to the markets of Venice. The women
mended the broken nets or netted new ones,
little guessing they were catching a trick of
netting which should one day form the founda-
tion of a fabric to be the pride of royalty.

"8 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

But all were not content with this quiet
island life. ‘There was one, a youth, who
heard strange voices in his soul, luring him
away from this little anchorage. The great
world, that drew him with a power he could
not resist, prepared a bark for him she called,
and he went out, not knowing whither he
went. |

At last, in the far south seas, his heart
bade him tear from its briny fastness an un-
known seaweed whose beauty attracted him
strangely. He had sailed far for this unknown
plant.

As our hearts prompt us to bestow upon
our best beloved the most beautiful gifts at
our command, so the heart of this man, who
was performing a mission, though he knew it
not, bade him carry this trophy of his voyage
to a maiden who waited in far Burano.

With the utmost care he preserved the deli-
cate Algw, and after weeks long and many of
weary sailing, he laid the plant, perfect and
beautiful, in the hand of the waiting maiden.

But, alas! there came a day when the treas-
ure began to fade; and the maiden saw that,

notwithstanding her greatest effort, her gift

must perish. The same spirit that prompted
to 1ts gathering inspired the little fisherwoman.

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FLOWERS OF THE SEA. 79

Tirelessly she worked, matching the skill her
fingers had acquired in netting of semes with
a quenchless desire to preserve a semblance of
her fair but perishable treasure. |

Finally there dawned a morning when the
plant lay black and withered. All the beauty
which had held the two hearts by its magic
was gone; but im the hand of the maiden lay
its delicate counterpart, woven of the finest of
threads.

The little sea plant which, it is said, actu-
ally furnished designs for the original Venetian
point lace, the netting of which the women of
Burano and of Venice were anciently so fa-
mous, has since been known as mermaid’s lace.

THE ARGONAUT.—THE NAUTILUS.

A bevy of roses, apple-cheeked,
In a shell of crystal, 1vory-beaked,
With a satin sail of a ruby glow.
KMERSON.

The winds go up and down upon the seas,

And some they hghtly clasp, entreating kindly,
And waft them to the port where they would be;
And other ships they buffet, long and blindly,
And God hath many wrecks within the sea.

Yet it is sweet to think his care is under,

That yet the sunken treasure may be drawn

Into his storehouse when the sea is gone.

CARL SPENCER.
82

DG
THE ARGONAUT.—THE NAUTILUS.

Tue day following, Dr. McLean brought
Undine a large translucent shell; so thin and
shining was it as to suggest the possibility of
its vanishing in air like a bubble.

“Yesterday,” he said, placing the shell in
her hand, “your cousin told us how a people
learned to make lace from a piece of seaweed.

I will tell you how the Argonauta taught men
nay igation.

“The argonaut and nautilus, although both
belonging to the copialonodn tie highest di-
vision of the mollusks—are in most points quite
unlike; yet m consequence of a similarity in
the form of their shells their names have often
been indiscriminately used. ‘The little voyager
with the silken sail is the Argonauta Argo, .
quite generally known as paper nautilus.

“Many and charming are the stories told of
this little sailor who, in his fairy bark with

satin sail, was wafted o’er the ‘unshadowed
83

Q4 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

main.’ Six of its arms it dropped as oars at
the side of its shallop and two more with their
membranes of silk were spread to the wind.
“Tt is said that catching glimpses of this
little marimer with whose inner life, it now ap-
pears, the ancients had no very intimate ac-
quaintance, they conceived the idea of the ves-
sels which they constructed, propelled by oars,
or wafted by the winds. The steamer, too, was
an outgrowth of hints given by these little
cephalopods, who by forcing water violently
through a tube in the body drive themselves
with considerable speed m a backward dt
rection. |
“Pictures of these little marmers sailing in
fairy fleets have fascinated the world from
Aristotle down, and we can hardly pardon
scientists of the present day who compel to
the belief that these stories are but charming
myths. The pretty fleets the ancients saw, we
are told, were probably not Wauizlz at all, but
were the Argonauta, which are true floating
mollusks; but even these we are now informed
never row their tiny craft nor spread a topsail.
“The ‘arms’ of these little animals, we
must now believe, were held during the voyage
close to the side of the ‘sharp-keeled, high-
pooped’ little vessel ‘to keep its balance

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THE ARGONAUT.—THE NAUTILUS. 85

straight,’ while the two winglike membranes,
that we loved to think were silvery sails, are
now supposed to be the secreting organs used
in fabricating the boat of pearl. These wise
observers have found, too, that it is only the
female argonaut who rides like a princess, the
males being diminutive and possessed of no
insignia of royalty.

“The little prmcess sits serenely in her
shell, but is in no way attached to it, and might
unharmed be lifted out and placed in another.

“The shell, besides serving as her boat, is
the pearly cradle or little ark in which the
infant Argonauta are borne in safety through
the floods. The eggs are fastened to filamen-
tary stalks and by these to the involuted spire
of the shell, and are usually concealed by the
body of the mother. Bei

“This shell of the argonaut as you see,”
said the doctor, reverting to the shell which
Undine still held in her hand, “is thin and
brittle as glass; hence while thousands sail the.
seas but few are found upon the shores.

“On the contrary, the shell of the nautilus
is thick and strong, and found upon many
tropic shores. The pearly nautilus is the one
with which we are best acquainted, and seems
to be the most abundant. This shell is some-

86 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

times a foot across, delicately porcelainlike, of
a light-buif tint, beautifully vemed or striped
in a zigzag pattern with chestnut brown. The
beauty of the nacreous liming of this shell I
have no words to describe. It seems a min-
sling of the delicate tints of most delicate
flowers and the beauty and brilliancy of rarest
gems. :

“The shell 1s divided into chambers, hence
the name ‘chambered nautilus.’ When very
young this is not the case, but as the animal
Increases In size it leaves its first compartment,
which becomes an empty chamber, and moves
forward to one still larger; the rim of the shell
continues to grow, and back of the little oceu-
pant a pearly partition is produced. This is
repeated from time to time, the little animal
always using the room next to the vestibule;
but through all preservmg a connection by
means of a silvery membranous tube called a
siphuncle. | |

“ But few species of these animals now re-
main and they alone in warm seas, but geology
shows that both Argonauta and Nautili were
very abundant in earlier periods.

“The fossil ammonite was a kind of ‘old-
fashioned cousin’ to the nautilus or paper
sailor. These are found in great abundance,

ee ee ng ae a a a

THE ARGONAUT.—THE NAUTILUS. 87

some rocks being composed almost entirely of
them. The name ammonite comes from a word
meaning ram, as anciently these shells were
thought to be ram’s horns, which, indeed, they
do resemble; hence popularly called Cornua
Ammonis, Jupiter Ammon, an Egyptian deity,
being sometimes represented in old sculptures
with head and horns of a ram, these latter and
the shells bearing a fancied resemblance.

“They have also been taken by the igno-
rant for petrified snakes and called ‘serpent
stones.’ The ignorant have been further de-
luded by having these ‘serpent stones’ pre-
sented to them with a finely carved snake’s
head at one end of the coil, while a cunningly
devised tradition accounted for the general ab-
sence of the head upon the ground that a saint
had first beheaded the reptiles and afterward
changed them into stone. Sir Walter Scott
weaves this legend into his poem entitled Mar-
mion, when close around the fire

‘“ Whitby’s nuns exulting told
How, of thousand snakes, each one
Was changed into a coil of stone,
When holy Hilda prayed.

And how

‘Themselves, within their holy bound,
Their stony folds had often found.

89 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

“These ‘stony folds,’ or fossil shells, are
sometimes found three and four feet in diam-
eter, but the majority are much smaller. The
smaller chambers of these shells seem also to
have been air cells, all connected by means of
the tube through which air was forced in or
dispelled, enabling the little animal to rise or
sink at pleasure. These pearly partitions also
served to strengthen the shell.

“But our story is incomplete,” said the
doctor, “without that charming poem which
has given to Dr. Holmes the title of ‘ Poet
ieaeate of the Nautilus.’ ”

Miss Bremely, who had anticiiaal rs
wish and sat with book in hand, now read the
following poem entitled

THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS.

This is the ship of pearl that poets feign

Sails the unshadowed main,

The venturous bark that flings

On the sweet summer wind its purple wings

In gulfs enchanted, where the siren sings

And coral reefs lie bare,

Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl,
Wrecked is the ship of pearl

And every chambered cell,

Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,

THE ARGONAUT.—_THE NAUTILUS. 89°

Before thee lies revealed—
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed.

Year after year beheld the silent toil

That spread this lustrous coil,

Still as the spiral grew,

He left the last year’s dwelling for the new,

Stole with soft step its shining archway through,

Built up its idle door,

Stretched in its last found home and knew the old no
more.

Thanks for the heavenly message brought from thee,

Child of the wandering sea,

Cast from her lap, forlorn !

From thy dead lips a clearer note is borne

Than ever Triton blew from wreathéd horn !

While on my ear it rings,

Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that
sings.

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,

As the swift seasons roll,

Leave thy low-vaulted past!

Let each new temple, nobler than the last,

Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast

Till thou at length art free,

Leaving thy outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea.

ROCKED IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP.

-The sea is a jovial comrade,
He laughs wherever he goes;
His merriment shines in the dimpling lines : | 4
That wrinkle his hale repose; ; =
He lays himself down at the feet of the sun, ; 5
And shakes all over with glee,
And the broad-backed billows fall faint on the ie
In the mirth of the mighty sea! |
BAYARD TAYLOR. ~
92 : F

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tee
ety

XT.
ROCKED IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP.

“How happy the sea looks to-day! Lis
waves are sparkling and dimplng as with mer-
riment,” and Undine’s heart was like the sea
of which she spoke.

“Halloo!” shouted Tom from the water's
edge; “here’s something beats a mermaid’s
cradle. It’s funny enough to make old Nep-
tune roar.” And Tom’s laughter, though per-
haps a trifle less uproarious, was a very good
substitute.

There lay a clam shell upon the sand. The
tide had lifted a dimimutive crab into it and
left both Just low enough for the sea to touch
with its silvery hands and keep them rocking.

“That might be called crabbed comfort,”
laughed Miss Bremely, “and looks as if Venus
had turned Crustacean baby tender.”

_ After amusing themselves for some time
over what Tom called “a freak of Nature,” the
ever-observant Undine Se “Cousin Ellen,

94 | THE HALL OF SHELLS.

what did you mean by saying that about
Venus turning Crustacean baby tender ?”

“The shell in which the baby crab is rock-
ing is called Venus Californiensis,” said her
cousin, “and all the shells of this family were
long ago dedicated to the sea-born maiden
Venus, whom the doctor told you about some
time ago, only he called her Aphrodite, the
name the old Greeks gave her. Many of the
shells of this family are among the most beau-
tifully colored and sculptured as well as the
most graceful in shape, and as such were re-
garded fitting offerings to the goddess who was
said to surpass all others m grace and beauty.

“Clams of different varieties are abundant
in salt water, some with shells heavy and
rough, others thin almost to transparency and
beautifully tinted. The round clam, known on
the Atlantic coast as quahog and valued as
an article of food, furnished the famous purple
wampum from the margin of its shell. This
violet wampum was counted twice as valuable
as the white by the aborigines, and its money ~
value has been commemorated in the name J.
mercenaria, by which this clam is called.

“The solid shells of the surf clam, Mactra
solidissima, were used by the same Indians as
hoes for cultivating their maize fields.

ROCKED IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP. 95

“The giant clam, Zridacna gigas, would
make a ‘sliding chariot’ large enough for a
very good-sized sea nymph. ‘This shell, which
is said to be the largest in the world, has been
found with its valves nearly two yards long
and weighing over five hundred pounds.
Should you ever go to Paris and visit the
Church of St. Sulpice you will there see two
valves of this tridacna which are used for hold-

ing ‘holy water.’
| “One of the most elegant bivalves is that
tridacna known as ‘bear’s paw.’ It is from
the Indian Ocean, and is beautifully mottled
with yellow and red.

“These are only a few of the many varieties
of clams suggested by this cradle rocking in
the waves. All do not belong to the Venus
family, howsoever much by their beauty they
may deserve the honor.”

Tom had compared the rocking clam shell
to a “mermaid’s cradle.” In her hall of shells
Undine had a dainty chiton, the C. Katherina,
of which she was very fond. It was really a
gem of a cradle.

The chitons are curious specimens when
alive, and death invests them with charms
which in life they failed to possess. The shell
is made up of eight different pieces so united

96 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

by strong ligaments as to allow of the animal
adapting itself to rounding surfaces or even to
roll itself up like a ball. This skeleton is the
pretty “ mermaid’s cradle.” 3

Icelandic sailors affirm the not very palata-
ble-looking chiton if swallowed will allay sea-
sickness or quench thirst.

We have heard of no one able to refute
this statement, and in our heart of hearts seri-
ously doubt if any one, even in the pangs of
seasickness, ever attempted the experiment.

GAY, SAD SCHEVENINGEN.

The very waves that washed the sand
Below him he had seen before
Whitening the Scandinavian strand
And sultry Mauritanian shore,
From ice-rimmed isles, from summer seas
Palm-fringed, they brought him messages.
‘WHITTIER.

Ps OD Ver

I feel for mariners of stormy nights,
And feel for wives that watch ashore. Ay, ay,
If I had learning I would pray the Lord

To bring them in.
But I make bold to say, ‘“‘O Lord, good Lord,
IT am a broken-down poor man, a fool
To speak to thee. But in the book ’tis writ,
As I hear say from others that can read,
How when thou camest thou didst love the sea,
And live with fisher folk, whereby ’tis sure
Thou knowest all the peril they go through
And all their trouble.” —

JEAN INGELOW.
98

TT,
GAY, SAD SCHEVENINGEN.

Wuen Dr. McLean again called, he found
the party at the beach; upon joining them
Undine was quick to spy a package of shells
he brought.

“These are for you, little Sea-Maiden,” he
said, “and will whisper you runes from the
north, for they came from Scheveningen upon
the stormy North Sea.”

“Oh, strange Scheveningen!” exclaimed
Miss Bremely. “Do tell the children of that
curious place.”

So Dr. McLean told them of Schevenin-
gen, where Holland steps down into the sea,
where the sands pile themselves mto dunes.
Gay throughout the summer with the beautiful,
the wealthy, the titled, and the crowned of
Europe; beaten in winter by the wind-lashed,
wraith-whispering, jOtun-vexed sea.

He told of its independent, ingenious, and
curiously isolated people ; of their little village
of black cottages over against their other vil-

99

100 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

lage of gay and fashionable dwellings; but
two miles from The Hague, yet as distinct and
- original as if from another continent.

He led the little group to respect and ad-
mire the sturdy industry and independence
which wove such strong fiber mm the characters
- of these secluded, eae k dressed, and extremely
poor people.

He told them how in the decline of the
herring fishing, which had been their chief in-
dustry, the people were not discouraged, but
in rope spinning, weaving nets, gathering shells,
selling fish, and the like, gaming but the scanti-
est of living, were still brave and true, their
very poverty invigorating their characters.
How in eye and bearing they demand respect,
and with dignity seem to say, “ We have
need of none!” He told them of the sand
dunes, and of the broad beach of hard sand,
dotted over with tents and wickerlike chairs
with woven covers, to shelter from the sun; of
the unique arrangement for bathers; of the
festivals and gayeties in which the flower of
the aristocracy of Europe participate. |

When he had finished, and the children
were busy upon the beach, he continued mus-
ingly, half to himself and half to Miss
Bremely :

GAY, SAD SCHEVENINGEN. 101

“Brave, brave Scheveningen! Gay, sad
Scheveningen! As thou hast two villages, so
thou hast two lives! The festivals of summer
pass, but none save Heaven and the dwellers
in the little black cottages know the heart
tragedies enacted there, ‘the mortal anxieties,
the holy joy of return, and the inconsolable
sorrow of parting.’

“There is,” he continued, “a Scheveningen
memory which these shells always suggest to
me,”

Seeing Miss Bremely’s interest, he related
as follows:

“JT had been in The Hague two weeks and
had often met at my hotel a French count, for
whom I instinctively felt an extreme aversion.
I had also often seen an Austrian party, ev1-
dently people of rank. There was nothing
particularly attractive about any of these peo-
ple, except one, a lady quite young and the
most lilylike of any person I had ever beheld.
Her complexion was fair as that delicate flower,
with a certain charm suggesting to me nothing
so much as a lily. Her every motion was re-
plete with grace, and her hair, which curled in
rings about her face, was like sunlit gold,
always reminding me of Mrs. Browning’s
words,

102 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

‘How many golden seudi
Went to make such ringlets.

“JT knew nothing whatever concerning her,
but was attracted by her beauty, as old tales
tell us men have been charmed by the beauty
of a siren.

“Jn my wanderings about the city I often
sauntered into a shop where curiosities were

sold. J was interested in the relics displayed,
which were of an exceptionally fine order,
but more, I think, I liked while looking
at his wares to listen to the talk of the
garrulous old man, who delighted in leaning
over his counter and telling the stranger
of people and places in his beloved father-
land.

“His face radiated good humor, and kind-
ness was written in its every line. One day
while studying some fine pictures of Holland
scenery, Herr Witzman, for that was the old
vender’s name, interrupted me with exclama-
tions of delight at the beautiful horses he saw
dashing down the street. Upon looking out I
saw they were attached to a tiny voeture, and
were driven by the count of my aversion, while
at his side sat the lilylike lady with the golden
curls.

“T had but time to perceive this when,

GAY, SAD SCHEVENINGEN. 103

‘Mein Gott! Men Gott! Ks ist Hmile !’
came from the lips of Herr Witzman.

“The dashing horses seemed poised in air,
their feet almost upon the head of one of
the strangest looking beings I had ever seen,
one whose peculiar costume showed her to be
a woman of Scheveningen. The feet of the
horses descended and the human creature lay
crushed beneath them.

“The count uttered an exclamation of
anger, and lashing the fiery horses dashed on
down the street, while the lilylike lady, only
whiter grown, with a little scream nestled
closer to the side of the count.

“The poor, mangled, broken piece of hu-
manity was tenderly lifted by the old curiosity
vender himself and carried into his little shop,
while again he repeated, ‘Wein Gott! Es ist
Emilie!’ |

“Upon nearer view, and with the strange
hat which she had worn removed, I saw the
woman's face, though marked by toil and ex-
posure, was finely chiseled. Its lines of char-
acter were drawn strong and deep. I instine-
tively compared her face with that of the lily-
like maiden, and found I regarded the latter as
I had regarded the count. Her beauty was
gone forever.

104 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

“A physician was summoned and _ restora-
tives applied, but Emilie, as her good old
friend called her, was past the help of man.
She revived somewhat, but knew none and was
unconscious of the presence of any about her,
but with wavering breath talked to one we
could not see.

“Are the boats in?’ she whispered, her
rugged native speech sweet with solicitude.
‘It has been long waiting—so long!’ Then
wearily she seemed to sleep.

“Again she whispered, ‘The fog—the fog
—Heaven help the—boats—if they be—coming
in!’ Then after a pause, ‘ J/utter—list for the
signals of—Der Leitstern. The roarmeg—of
the sea—is—in—my ears. It is—very cold.’
A. shudder passed over her frame; it would
have been taken for a paroxysm of pain but
that she was past pain’s cruel power. When
she spoke again it was hurriedly, as with joy,
but with great weakness. ‘ God be praised !’ she
said ; ‘ Der Leitstern—is coming—through—the
ok. It shmes—J/utter—like a—star. Hein-
rich !—God be praised !—Heinrich—beckons— ,
at the prow! See—M/utter—how grand—and —
fair—he looks! Heinrich—calls—us! Haste,
Mutter—I—will—help—thee. The—boat—is
—here. Heinrich—I—come! God—he

GAY, SAD SCHEVENINGEN. 105

“We who watched doubted not her ejacula-
tion of praise and thanksgiving was finished
just beyond our dull ears’ hearing, and the
hand she raised with her last fluttering heart
beat was laid in the hand of him she saw ‘so
grand and fair’ waiting for her upon the phan-
tom ship.

“When all was over Her Witzman told me
Emilie’s sad story.

“Wighteen years before Der Leitstern sailed
away to fish for herring on the seas about Scot-
land. No braver, truer man sailed with her
than Heimrich Bretzel, to whom Emilie was
betrothed and to whom she should be wed when
the flotilla returned from its fishing cruise.

“Scarcely a week after the boats went out a
fearful storm came on; the heavens were black
for days, and the angry sea below seemed ris-
ing to meet the angry sky above. Der Leit-
stern was never seen again nor its crew heard
from. But knowing the character and habits of °
the Scheveningen fishermen, we believe that
after doing their utmost, then, as their custom
is, they shut every aperture of the boats, and
going into the cabin read the words of him
who ‘ruleth the raging of the sea’ and waited
his will.

“ When the boats came no more, Emilie, who

106 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

was not needed in the cottage of her parents,
went to the lone mother of her betrothed and
labored for her support. When there were no
fish for her to bring to the markets of The
Hague, she came to Herr Witzman with shells
she gathered among the sad waves at Scheven-
ingen. The day of which I have told you she
had a small store of shells and was evidently
crossing to Herr Witzman’s little shop when
thrown under the feet of the horses.

“T bought the shells, giving their price into
the hand of Herr Witzman to be used toward
her burial. The day followmg I was myself
at Scheveningen.

“I sat in one of the wicker-basket chairs
upon the wide sand beach when a curious
closed carriage drawn by a single strong horse
came down the sand and was driven out far
into the sea. A door opened and the lilylike
lady with golden hair descended into the
water, and with gay laughter po among
the waves.

“ Again in the evening I saw her dancing
amid lights and gayety with the French count.

“Neither of them thought, nor had hearts
worthy to think of Emilie, to whom a life of
hardship and of sorrow ht given ie of
which they had no power to conceive.”

Lo

A THERER.

ya

GQ

SHELL-

HEVENINGEN

N

C

Ss

AN ANCIENT FAMILY.

less es iived in the construction of a sea urchin ie
the building of a world. —EDWARD FORBES.

108

»GONP
AN ANCIENT FAMILY.

“Orp Neptune’s a spendrift! See the
‘sand dollars he’s thrown away! And here’s
a devil’s pincushion! What does theology
say about that?” asked Tom merrily.

“Theology and science take that spiny
thing,” answered the minister, “and read in its
eventful history ‘by what wonderful, what un-

expected roads God arrives at the completion
_of his designs. One does not discern the slight-
est resemblance of form between the little
slow-swimming dome (the infant sea urchin)
and the spmed and boxed urchin which craw Is
over the rocks.’

“So accustomed are we to the thoughts and
to the skill of the Creator as manifested in
his works, we are indifferent to the lessons
they teach or to the prophecies they may con-
tain. So much for your text, Tom!

“The sea urchin has several names besides

the one which you bestowed upon it. Sea
109

110 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

porcupine it is called from the forest of spines
which cover its test. When dead these spines
rub. off and the beautiful shell is apparent,
which then 1s not imappropriately called sea
egg. Sichinus is the name science has given it.
This class of radiate animals belongs to the
group Lchinodermata, which means spiny-
skinned, and truly the Achinide are a spiny
set. Yet those very spines are most wonder-
ful examples of the divine handiwork. Their
tints are delicate and various; the substance
of which they are composed is a calcareous
matter, but transparent as glass. Hach spine
is connected with the interior of the animal
and moved at its will. You have noticed the
tiny raised processes on the surface of a dead
urchin’s shell; the spines have a depression
which exactly fits over this pomt mm a man- ©
ner similar to the ball-and-socket jomts m the
human shoulder and hip.

“Tt is by help of these spines that the chz-

nus climbs even a smooth surface, or with

them excavates for itself a hiding place in the ©

sand. Many “chin are able by some means
to bore holes in rocks, and there spend their
days in seclusion and safety from enemies that
infest the sea.

“The mouth of the sea urchin is on the

fives uate
PA ee

i

( “slg
‘

A-+SHAl ab

feather star.

Pentacrinoid larva of the rosy

2. The bud quite young.

fi:

f the feather star at very early stage

of its development, before the disappearance of the ciliated

3. Dorsal view of the larva o

Much enlarged.

4. Mature rosy feather star.

bands.

(Comatula rosacea.)

AN ANCIENT FAMILY. ATT

under surface, and armed with five calcareous
teeth and strong muscular jaws it 1s well pre-
pared to do its work of crushing small crusta-
ceans and mollusks, which are its food.

“The starfish is the pretty cousin of the sea
urchin, and is a ‘lineal descendant’ of the ‘old
family’ Crinoidew. ‘There is, in fact, an As-
teria who in its early life adheres to the time-
honored custom of its ancestry, and fixed to a
stalk attaches itself to some graceful seaweed
or aristocratic coralline. Their bodies, like
others of this group, are supported by calcare-
ous envelopes composed of numerous pieces,
The number of these plates in the Red Sea
starfish, for example, 1s estimated to be eleven
thousand.

“Our starfish, as you know, has generally
five rays. Solaster papposus has ordinarily
thirteen ; another has more than thirty. In
one variety they are found many feet long.

“Some starfishes possess the power of grow-
ing another ray if one be broken off, and the
one sundered may grow four more and be-
come starfish ‘No. 2.’ Not only this, but some
varieties are actually suicidal, flying to pieces
when taken from the water.

“The Comatula rosacea, or feathery star, 1s
one of the prettiest creatures you can imagine.

113 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

When young it grows upon a stem and waves
in the sea as an aster—which it sometimes imi-
tates in color as well as form—waves in the
breezes. When it becomes fully developed it
finds itself free from the restraining stem and
floats out into the watery world at will or
catches to stones, shells, and seaweeds by its
feathery arms, holding with such tenacity that
it would seem each bit of feather concealed a
claw.

“You have heard how starfish delight in
living upon mussel and oyster beds, being ex-
ceedingly destructive to the latter. If the
oyster refuses to open its doors to Mr. Starfish,
Mr, Starfish has a way of his own of opening
them; and if the oyster still remains obdurate
and refuses to be eaten, the starfish accommo-
dates himself to circumstances and projects his
stomach about the oyster and sucks in the soft
parts. ‘The stomach is capacious, extending its
lobes into each arm or ray. |

“Another relative of my lady fair—the
stone lily—possessing her family traits but not
always her charming attractiveness, is the Holo-
thurvan or sea cucumber. We do not observe
in this unattractive specimen the delicate plates
around insulated rounded cavities. Yet natu-
ralists tell us the leathery exterior of the sea

FISHING FOR SEA CUCUMBERS IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.
HoLOTHURIDA.

AN ANCIENT FAMILY. 113

cucumber is rudimentary calcareous matter ar-
ranged on the same plan as in the skeleton of
its more attractive relatives.

“Tn color it 1s green, brown, or red, and
its delicate tentacles are arranged over its sur-
face, corresponding to the tiny points mark-
ing the vegetable which it so strongly resem-
bles as to have received its name. In deep-sea
dredgings specimens are often brought up
about the size of a marketable cucumber.

“ Although these strange creatures eat and
drink they appear to attach very little impor-
tance to their stomachs, sometimes actually
vomiting up their whole internal structure,
and yet live on undisturbed ; in a few months
the organs are reproduced.

“The sea cucumbers are found in many
seas, but gain their greatest distinction on the
coasts of China and Africa, where they are
highly appreciated as articles of diet. In
China they are prepared for market under the
name of ‘ trepang.’

“Although upon first acquaintance these
flowerlike animals do not appear to resemble
each other, nevertheless we find they preserve
the family characteristics of their distinguished
progenitors, the stone lilies, so abundant in
past ages that whole beds of marble have been

114 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

formed almost entirely from their broken stems
and flowers. 3

“Once the glory of the sea, they have
‘dwindled to a few species, inhabiting for the
most part the deepest seas.”

The followmg may be helpful in giving an _
understanding of the classes of Achinodermata.
First we have the Crinozdea, which are really
stalked starfishes, the body mounted upon a
stem which is jomted and hollow; second, the
A steroidea, which are free and have five arms;
third, “chinoidea, having a spherical body,
with long spines; fourth, the Holothuroide,
having elongated bodies, with skin soft or
muscular,

BARNACLES.

There are castles by the sea; |
All their domes are porphyry. “a

ee ae ek ts

Tell me Si the builders be

Of these castles by the sea.

116

XV:
BARNACLES.

“ HERE we come to a pygmies’ village,” said
Miss Bremely one day when the party were
upon the beach. “I can scarcely step without
shattering their tiny towers, they stand so thick
upon the rocks.”

“When the little tenants of these castles
‘take the curl papers out of their hair,’ and
opening their two-valved doors look over their
turrets, any small knight might be charmed
into riding a tilt in their behalf,” laughed the
doctor.

“Don’t barnacles live in these little cas-
tles ?” questioned Undine.

“Yes,” replied Dr. McLean ; “ though if you
were to ask them who they were I fancy they
would never know what to say. They have
so many transitions I wonder if they know
whether they are themselves or somebody else.
In external appearance they resemble the mol-
lusks ; in more important parts of their organ-

isms they are crustaceans.
117

118 oO PR BALE OP Sis.

“Tn their first form these little castle hold-
ers, but dancing atoms, have one big black eye,
three pairs of legs, and on the forehead a pair
of flexible horns. If we did not know the end
we should say a mistake had been made in
their legs, which seem to grow more and more
unfit for use either for land or water. ‘As-
cending the scale,’ the body with its irmged
legs, to which are added two pair more, is now
inclosed mm a tiny two-valved shell like a mus-
sel. Its one eye becomes two, its head and
antenns Increase in size, and it now prepares
to make the most wonderful change of all. It
‘stands on its head’ literally and fastens itself
head downward to the rocks by means of a
cement itself secretes. Its bivalve shell is no
longer needed, its shield becomes the beginning
of its castle walls, and its group of legs become
tentacles which wave gracefully backward and
look lke delicate curls of hair. It is these
which give the name Crrripeda to this group,
cirrus meaning a lock of hair and pedes a foot.

“They now are true barnacles, and their
castles by the sea are like turrets crowding one
upon another.

“ All barnacles are not the same kind, and
their turrets are not all upon the rocks. Many
are attached to pieces of wood, hulls of ships,

ith attached barnacles.

is, Ww

ial

imperi

Infant barnacles

Murex haustellum and Harpa

BARNACLES. 119

etc. Not infrequently vessels put into port
and have these incrustations which grow bur-
densome, removed. Others, more nomadic per-
haps in their dispositions, attach themselves to
the bodies of whales, of sharks, etc., and while
stationary are still among the greatest of trav-
elers.

“When myths and science were much in-
termingled, the barnacle was believed to be the
embryo of a goose, hence called the barnacle
goose. We find one of the learned men of the
sixteenth century describing: ‘A thing in form
like a lace of silke finely woven, the first that
appeareth when the shell gapeth open. A little
later the legs of the bird hang out. In short
space of time it cometh to maturity and falleth
into the water, where it becometh a fowl.’
While science has dissolved this fable, it is
known notwithstanding that the barnacle does
pass through transitions quite as wonderful.”

The children fell to examiming barnacles,
the doctor to musing, presumably upon science.
Miss Bremely sat watching the waves that
came riding up the sand like restless, foaming
steeds. Presently she began singing softly Sid-
ney Lanier’s exquisite lines entitled

120 THE HALL OF SHELLS. Se

-BARNACLES.

My soul is sailing through the sea,

But the Past is heavy and hindereth me.

The Past hath crusted, cumbrous shells

That hold the flesh of cold sea-mells.
About my soul

The huge waves wash, the high waves roll,

Kach barnacle clingeth and worketh dole
And hindereth me from sailing!

Old Past let go and drop 7’ the sea
Till fathomless waters cover thee!
For I am living, but thou art dead ;
Thou drawest back, I strive ahead
The Day to find.
Thy shells unbind! Night comes behind,
I need must hurry with the wind
And trim me best for sailing.

The face of the singer was toward the sea,
and she did not know as she might if she had
looked into the doctor’s eyes that he had ceased.
to meditate upon science.

A SEA FAN AND A SEA PARABLE.

What the cloud doeth
The Lord knoweth ;
The cloud knoweth not.

‘What the artist doeth

The Lord knoweth ;
Knoweth the artist not.

SIDNEY LANIER. -

Take therefore the talent from him—for unto every
one that hath shall be given: but from him that hath not
shall be taken away even that which he hath.—Bv0le.

122

NG
A SEA FAN AND A SEA PARABLE.

Unprine discovered a fan gorgon in the doc-
tor’s cabinet and begged to know what it was,
while Tom was no less delighted with the va-
rieties of coral the cabinet contained.

“Oh, that,” said the doctor to Undine,
“was a mermaid’s fan, and no belle of terra
jirma could boast of a fan so gorgeous. Its
tints were rose and yellow, green and lavender,
and bedight with jeweled filigree it flashed
until its glitter made a sort of daylight under
the sea. It is called a fan gorgon, Undine, and
when alive was even more dainty and charming
in color, and far more glittermg than I have
described or can lead you to imagine. Dainty
and beautiful enough it was to be called a mer-
maid’s fan.

“Jt was long considered a singular and gor-
geous sea plant, but the microscope has re-
vealed it to be the home and the work of little

polypi which naturalists had thought were
10 123

124 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

flowers. The polypier, or polypus stalk, of the
sea fan, surrounded by only a semicalcareous
crust, is flexible, the whole structure tough and
elastic. Different species show various, but all
beautiful formations. Sometimes the branches
appear nearly straight, at others they are a
mazy network of the most delicate and intri-
cate tracery, and when their colonies of jewel-
like polypi are in bloom they seem the realiza-
tion of a fairy dream.

“Gorgonide are found in all seas, but are
most abundant in those of warm climates, as is
the case with all species of polypi.

“These fan manufacturers were cousins to
the polypi who wrought those miracles in
stone,” continued the doctor, turning to Tom
and the corals. “All these little workers
have been known as Zodphytes, or flower
animals, They might have been called Phi-
losopher’s Puzzles, for such they have long |
been, and even now they keep many of
their pretty secrets safe in their own little
stomachs, this anatomical locality bemg at
present regarded by the sages as the ‘seat and —
center’ of personal identity in these pretty
polypi. |

“Tn their living and active state each little
worker looks like a tiny star with its rays ar-

A SEA FAN AND A SEA PARABLE. 125

ranged about the central point, which is the
mouth. ;

“We are apt to regard such minute organ-
isms as insensible to surrounding conditions,
and unable to communicate with each other
even if they might be conscious of anything to
communicate, but we find Nature clothes her
‘feeble folk’ with mystery and endows them
with faculties we can not understand; and
if you were to injure or disturb one of the
polyps m a piece of coral like this, quick
as a flash would the danger be telegraphed
to every member of the little colony, and
you would see each tiny animal instantly
curl back as if he had been the one who suf-
fered.

“An enormous traffic is carried on in the
different varieties of coral, affording employ-
ment for hundreds of vessels and thousands of
fishermen. It is broken from the sea bottom
by means of beams or irons attached to the
boats used for that purpose, and brought up by
grappling irons; divers also are employed in
these coral fisheries. I once saw them in the
Mediterranean gathering red coral ( Coradlium
rubrum), the divers themselves looking like
very unattractive mermen, or sea monsters, as
they came up from the depths with the great

126 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

nets swung from their shoulders in which they
had deposited the coral.

“The bulk of coral used for ornamentation
is fished from the Mediterranean Sea, and some-
times at a depth of seven or eight hundred
feet.

“The red is susceptible of a fine polish, and
is much sought after by many Eastern nations
for personal adornment, for sword hilts, for
amulets, which are superstitiously believed to
have power to avert evil. The name given it
by the Greeks commemorated their belief that
it was originally the blood drops that fell
upon the seashore from the head of Medusa,
hardened and planted mn the sea by ocean
nymphs.

“Formerly the red commanded the highest
price of all the corals, but this poimt has been
yielded to the delicate pink, which vies in
color with the tinted petals of the queen of
flowers. |

“Besides the red, pink, and white coral,
there are many shades of green, brown, yellow, —
and black. All are more or less beautiful, both —
in life and in death.

“The flowerlike inhabitants have disap-
peared, but their workmanship remains in these
exquisite marbles before you, Tom,” continued

A SEA FAN AND A SEA PARABLE. re

the doctor in a more serious vein. “ During
their lives this dainty tracery was hidden, but
now we can see the true beauty of the homes
into which their lives were wrought. This
calcareous substance secreted by these polyp
is ‘partitioned into cells with mathematical
regularity, and, studding the entire surtiace,
produces a most beautiful effect. The spe-
cific variety of these coral homes is almost
endless, yet each species builds after its type.
The lesson: has been learned, and the crea-
tures live up to it throughout endless genera-
tions,’ ” *

While Dr. McLean displayed the different
varieties of coral which his cabinet contained,
Miss Bremely said, “‘The quotation you have
just given suggests to me a sea parable which
I think contains a beautiful lesson.” The doc-
tor turned to her with a pleasant interest, and,
interpreting his wish im the smile he gave, she
repeated the following

* Henry A. Ward, in Catalogue of Corals, Gorgons, ete.

pa a nN ge a a,
198 THE°HALD)\OF SHELLS.

nfl

ZZ 3 SI
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A SEA FAN AND A SEA PARABLE. 129

yours at the beginning. Have acare! I warn
you!”

And the wave with the silvery crest sped
on.

“Tt is true we are small and can do but lit-
tle,” whispered the Coral; “but the Master of
Life created us for a glorious purpose. He
has deigned to give us lovely visions, and
has said to us In a voice sweeter than song,
‘Build ye !’”

“Yes,” assented the Corallium paicaan pre-
cious coral), “his presence suffused the clouds
with a glow surpassing the beauty of the morn-
ing; fair tmts commingled and veins of crim-
son and scarlet intertwined like delicate twigs.
We are a feeble folk, and we knew not that we
could be of any use, but a voice came out of
the cloud, saying, ‘build yx on this wise!’
We knew not how, but in strong desire and
overpowering love we dwelt upon the vision.
Of ourselves we are no longer aware. We
lose ourselves in obedience to the beautiful
vision, and we feel an assurance that all is
well.”

A. Wave touched lightly the pink and crim-
son dyouterie of the coral bed and whispered
to the polypi: “In losing yourselves ye find
honor and become the setting of crowns.

130 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

There is a crown whose jewels, like yours, are
wrought in obedience and love, and of them
it is said, ‘They shall shine forever and
ever!’” And the wave with the silvery crest
sped on.

The Zubtpora musica (organ-pipe coral)
continued: “It was near the morning of crea-
tion; upon the sand stood One whom the earth
and the sea adore, and at whose feet the white
waves bow their heads. He gathered the hol-
low reeds that grew at his feet, and, pressmg
them together, he said to us: ‘Build YE on
this wise !’

“We knew not how; yet the sea and all
things that are therein praise him and do his
will. We gave ourselves to the work, and be-
hold! he hath blessed it, and that hath made
it good.”

A. wave touched the tiny “organ pipes” of
coral and a wind breathed upon them; a soft
melody arose, in key with that harmony heard
when the morning stars sang together. The
wave with the silvery crest sped on.

“And to us,” said one of the arborescent
corals—the Mandrepora formosa— the vision
was given on this wise: The branching trees
of the forest were reflected in the mirror of
the ocean, and while in our feebleness we won-

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A SEA FAN AND A SEA PARABLE. 131

dered a power came upon us to build. We
gave ourselves; we could do no more. The
vision is ever before us. We would that we
could better accomplish the work that was
given us to do.”

A wave circled among the branches of coral
and whispered to the little polypi: “I come
from laving a beautiful island where palm trees
grow and homes of mankind are clustering. It
was you, little ‘reef builders,’ who laid the
foundations. of that island. Ye builded better
than ye knew.” And the wave with the sil-
very crest sped on.

Upon the sand crawled a crab—he with the
“compound faceted eyes”! He of the race of
armored knights! But, alas! by generations
of indulgence and selfishness, lost was half his
coat-of-mail—which had been a family heir-
loom—two of his: sets of claws, made strong
for service, had become enfeebled by disuse or
wholly followed the lost armor. He crawled
‘in terror upon the sand, seeking safety from
his legion of enemies. Spying the shell of an
industrious mollusk, he hastily devoured the
helpless creature and backed crabbedly into
its empty shell. The crab had become the
half-naked vagabond tramp of the seashore !

A wave broke upon the sand. It gave the

132 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

hermit crab a sad but disdainful toss, and said:
“T warned you long ago! ‘This comes of not
doing your best with gifts the Creator bestowed
upon you!” And the wave with the silvery
crest sped on.

A STORM.—RAZOR FISHES.

When winds are raging o’er the upper ocean,
And billows wild contend with angry roar,

Tis said, far down, beneath the wild commotion,
That peaceful stillness reigneth evermore. |

- Far, far beneath, the noise of tempests dieth,
And silver waves chime ever peacefully,
And no rude storm, how fierce soe’er it flieth,

Disturbs the Sabbath of that deeper sea.

So to the heart that knows thy love, O Purest!
There is a temple sacred evermore :

And all the babble of Life’s angry voices
Dies in hushed stillness at its peaceful door.

Far, far away the roar of passion dieth,
And loving thoughts rise kind and peacefully,
And no rude storm, how fierce soe’er it flieth,
Disturbs the soul that dwells, O Lord, in thee.

Mrs. H. B. STOWE.
134

CEN

A STORM.—RAZOR FISHES.—BYSSUS SPINNERS.
—STONE EATERS.—LIGHTED TOMBS.

Iy grandeur an approaching storm strode
through the heavens, walked upon the waters,
and thrilled the palpitating air.

Tom threw himself upon the ground under
the very lashings of the ocean spray, but happy
as a storm petrel he watched the marshaling
of the tempest.

Dr. McLean stood with uncovered and up-
lifted head. He felt the power and the pres-
ence of one mighty—

Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters :

Who maketh the clouds his chariot :
Who walketh upon the wings of the wind.

As the wind sweeps through a casement
and smites an Avolian harp placed there by the
builder, and of which till then the householder
knew not, so were touched chords in this man’s
soul—chords placed there by the Master Build-
er, to be used one day when the house should be

135

136 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

larger and the wind the “breath of the spirit.”
He who in reverence and humility stood with
uncovered head was a quickened spirit. His
whole being thrilled with the consciousness of
these greater powers—of senses till then un-
recked of. Whether in the body or out of the
body, he knew his immortality—that he stood
before the face of the Eternal. He felt his
kinship.

A chill little hand was slipped into his,
He yearned for the fuller, further communion,
for the larger vision; but he turned from the
glory, from the vision, and bent to the child at
his side. He could only so be true to his kin-
ship; and so the vision stayed in his soul.

Undine stood trembling; her pale face told
how the black storm clouds and the furious
sea terrified her. ; |

“Tt all makes me feel so small and weak,”
she said; “as 1f the wind could carry me away
into the darkness and storm as it would carry
a leaf.”

“Fudge!” exclaimed Tom, as he lay upon
his back, kicking his heels into the sand. “i
hike it! It’s grand! It makes me feel as if I
were an eagle and heard the swoop of eagles
overhead. My! don’t the wind and the sea
roar !”

A STORM.—RAZOR FISHES. 137

But Dr. McLean and his little charge were
halfway to the cottage, she telling how troubled
she felt for the dear people in ships out on
that troughy sea, while he gently soothed her
burdened little heart, leading her to rest her
care on him who “ruleth the raging of the sea.”
He repeated the grand words of the Psalmist,
whose inspiration touched all subjects and all
ALES ;

“They that go down to the sea in ships,
That do business in great waters ;

These see the works of the Lord,
And his wonders in the deep.

He maketh the storm a calm,
So that the waves thereof are still.”

They were none too soon in seeking shel-
ter; just as they gained the veranda the van-
guard of the storm struck them. Even Tom
was constrained to leave his contemplation of
“eagle wings” and make good use of a pair of
stout legs. ‘The shadows were gone from Un-
dine’s eyes, and they were full of merriment as
she watched Tom dashing through the storm,
sending back defiant peals of laughter to the
gusts of wind and billows of rain that followed
him.

The trio stood at the window watching the

138 THE°* HALL OF SHELLS:

waves and the rain “clap their hands together,”
as Tom expressed it.

“J should think such hammering waves
might break all the shells in the ocean,” said
Undine, whose heart ever turned to her treas-
ures.

“Many of them will be broken,” answered
the doctor, “but not unfrequently some of the
most fragile are lifted upon the crest of a wave
and laid upon the sand, far out of danger;
some are buried im the sand. You know how
the limpets and abalones cling; more are down
in the region of calms below the storm, while
others are moored by stout cables of their own
spinning.” |

At mention of shells buried in the sand,

Tom pulled a razor shell from his pocket, say-
ing: “When I was wading in the shallows
this morning a jet of water struck my foot. I
dug this fellow out of the sand.”
“JT once saw men searching for razor fishes
in the Bay of Naples,” said the doctor. “They
were findmg them with their feet, as you did
this one; but I venture you did not resort to
their method of bringing them to the surface.

“When they discover a Solen—another
name for their razor fish—they bring it up be-
tween their toes; and as the shell has a razor-

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A STORM.—RAZOR FISHES. 139

like edge, and the owner of it makes a fierce
struggle for liberty, the poor fisherman often
has his foot badly cut before the prize is
secured.

“Razor fishes belong to the order Siphoni-
da, some members of which are dubbed ‘ wa-
tering pots,’ on account of their strong siphons,
- many inches in length. In fact, in the Glyci-
meris generosa of our own coast the siphon
attains to a full yard.

“Their habit of spouting out jets of water
when disturbed is one way by which they are
discovered, and gives them the additional name
of ‘ caches. a

As the doctor finished, ate asked :
“What did you mean by saying, ‘some shells
were moored by cables of the animal’s own
spinning ?’”

“Qh, those are the byssus spinners!” said
the doctor, and goimg to a shelf he took sev-
eral shells from it. First he displayed a pearly
Anomia, the undervalve of which was flat, with
a hole near one extremity to allow of the pas-

sage of the byssus tuft for attachment; then

he showed them a scallop with a notch through
which the stout byssus fiber was passed ; then
a mussel, saying: “The inmates of these shells

knew eS to spin a tuft of fibers which in
11

140 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

some were fine as silk, in others stiff and
horny. These were attached by strong mus-
cles to themselves, and thence to rock, reef,
or wreck, as pleased the little spmner.

“These threads are spun by the foot of the
little animal, and are so stout as to withstand
the shock of the Incoming seas. When wish-

ing temporary anchorage, or fearing the stress -

of waves, it has only to throw out its byssus
cable and rest secure. Sometimes this little
bark with its silken moorings is freighted with
pearls,” said he, pomtimg to a mussel; “the
pearls. of these shells, however, are generally
of an inferior order. |

“The Pinna, or fan mussel, is a byssus

spinner, having valves two feet long; and the
beautiful silk of its byssus has been used in
spinning rich and costly fabrics. |

“We find among these not only the spin-
ners of silk, but borers of wood and stone, and
hence some of them have received the name
‘wood eaters’ or ‘stone eaters.’

“ How these little creatures are able to bore
into hard substances has long been a question
of wonder and speculation. The serrated or
filelike edges of some shells might seem to
account for it in a measure; the abrading foot

with its strong muscles, sometimes assisted by

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A STORM.—RAZOR FISHES. 141

grains of sand which it rubs against the rock,
might be sufficient; the cilia of others are said
to be used in the boring. But none of these
seem sufficiently to account for cisions made
in flinty rocks or hardest of shell-like sub-
stances. Hence it has been suggested that the
work may be sometimes slowly but surely ac-
complished by the means of an acid secreted
by the bivalve for this purpose.

“Borers sometimes entirely bury themselves
in rocky sepulchers of their own excavation.

“In tombs of men whom the world honors
hehts are sometimes kept burnmg. Nature
honors equally these httle miners, to whom
she has given lamps while living; and after
their busy days are over, their work done, and
no man knoweth their sepulchers, still the hght
of their little lamps may be seen, for these
borers are luminous; and it is said that the
Pholas at least retains its phosphorescence so
long as a piece remains; even if that piece be
hard and dry it will again give out its light
when moistened by the waves.

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Ah! what pleasant visions haunt me,

All the old romantic legends,

All my dreams come back to me. |
LONGFELLOW. |

Pages no better than blanks to common minds, to his”
are hieroglyphical of wisest secrets.— WILSON.

144

XVII.
OLIVES.

“Why has no lover of Nature discovered
the ‘cipher’ by which to read the hieroglyph-
ics on these olives?” said Miss Bremely, after
expressing her admiration for those glossy and
finely polished shells.

“There is an exquisite pleasure in holding
them in my hand and in hearing the rhythmic
sound they make touching against each other.
I have always been fond of yen aa always
wished there might be such a thing as a clew
to their pretty ‘ picture writing.’ ”

“Perhaps they are tablets of the Nereids,
and report their calls, engagements, and con-
quests,” suggested the doctor.

“Accept me as your oracle,” he added,
taking an Olwa scripta from her hand. “I
will be a mouth to it. Its long-locked secrets
shall speak to your heart.

“JY affirm and declare this to be an ancient

tablet from his Majesty Oceanus to her Royal
145

146 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

Highness Tethys, written in his fiery youth,
and full of titles of endearment. Behold this
one, oft repeated!” he said, pointing to certain
_ similar markings more delicately and regularly
traced than work on Babylonian brick or
Egyptian obelisk.

“Tits reading is this: ‘O maiden by my

heart cherished! The sea halls are desolate.

The jasper throne awaits thee. O maiden by
my heart cherished! The singing nymphs
can not charm me. Stay thy sliding chariot.
Listen and draw near. O maiden by my heart
cherished! Speaks not my heart to thee?’
And here,” he said, “is mscribed the name
with all its titles and the ancient seal of the
great Oceanus.”

While assuming to read the olive tablet the
doctor’s eyes were really reading this later
maiden’s face, and its blushes pleased him.

But she lightly answered :

“JT read another story in this delicate cunet-
form. It is an ocean rune full of mystery and
tells how the waves learned their motion; how
the moon draws the crystal tides ; why the sea
moans; and this one has a sea song engraven
on it; and, presto!” she exclaimed, taking
from the shelf an elegant harp shell (//arpa
ventricosa), “here is the sea nymph’s harp to

OLIVES. 147

furnish the accompaniment. But I hear my
own little Sea-Maiden calling me.”

And Miss Bremely was gone.

Oliva scripta, which the doctor had selected
as best illustrating his idea of an ancient tablet
or epistle from the royal Oceanus to his well-
beloved Queen Tethys, was delicate enough to
have been indeed a gift from a sea king to the
most lovely nymph either of the ocean or the
earth. This shell was over an inch in length,
shining as if polished by the Jewel makers of
the deep. Its delicate fawn-colored surface,
suffused with soft shadmgs of brown, was writ-
ten over in fine zigzag lines of a pale chestnut
tint, bearing also in stronger drawn _hiero-
glyphic figures what seemed as if they might
be words or sentences to be emphasized; and
these oft repeated were the markings which
the doctor had ingeniously rendered into ex-
pressions of endearment, while just above the
aperture of the shell, which was a mingling of
the blue tint of the waves and the soft white-
ness of pearls, a strongly marked inscription he
affirmed to be the royal signature and seal.

The name given. this Olive—scripta—
showed that others before had recognized in
its curious and delicate markings a resemblance
to writing.

i a a tn ee ccs te CE tse

148 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

Soft tmts, a shinmg and porcellaneous sur-
face, and handsome markings are some of the
characteristics of the shells of the family Olivi-
de. The animals of this family are exclusive-
ly tropical, and upon sandy flats of warm seas
they revel, moving about with considerable
quickness, burrowing under the wet sand when
the tides are low, and leaving no trace of their
hiding places.

The number of both fossil and living’ spe-
cles is large, and it is impossible to tell all the
shades of coloring and the various patterns of
banding and nebulous painting to be found
upon them.

A curious characteristic of this group of
mollusks is its dual picturing. Underlying
the external porcellaneous and decorated sur-
face of the shell is another layer decorated
with an entirely different pattern, the two lay-
ers making their different growths at the same
time. This under layer is, however, never ex-
posed except by the outer one becoming worn
off or when acids are used in removing it. |

The external colorings and markings of
these shells have also been obliterated by the
application of heat. So the Pacific islanders,
who delight in these shells for ornamenting
their bracelets and belts, but prefer them pure

OLIVES. 149

white, have resorted to this trick in their ex-
tremely crude laboratories.

Another interesting pecularity has pecs
discovered in the olives in common with some
other animals having similar shells, that 1s, the
ability the little creature has of dissolving
away the earlier formed volutions of the shell,
and so according to its needs enlarging its place
of habitation.

The islanders of the Indian Ocean fish the
Olivide extensively, using a number of lines
baited with pieces of fish. They allow these
lines thus baited to sink to the sandy shallows,
the habitat of the olives. Not a very long
time is required for the little animals to dis-
cover the feast thus spread for their use, and
they gather upon the pieces of fish in great
numbers, and are drawn up to be sold in the
markets.

The Olivella, or little olive, is distinguished
from the typical olive by a smaller shell, more
extended spire, and the presence of a thin and
horny operculum. It is also said that the olive
has eyes while the Olivella has none.

The Indians of the Pacific coast attached a |

mercenary value to one variety of these small
shells—O. biplicata—which they called “col-
col,”

ee

150 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

There is another species which excels as a
swimmer. Expanding quickly the lobes of its
foot, 1t strikes the water suddenly with these ~
and darts swiftly away in sportive fashion
through the waves, or speeds at will from one
sandy shoal to another.

Belonging to a subfamily of the Olivide
we find the harp shell, to which Miss Bremely
referred as fitting to furnish the accompani-
ments to sea songs, which she fancied to be en-
graven upon the pretty olives. These harp
shells are in truth beautiful enough to be sug-
gestive of conceptions of harmony, of music,
and of delight to sea nymphs and “ ocean
swells.” The shells are prominently ribbed, and
decorated with well-defined dark lines of inter-
costal painting. Most of them are highly col-
ored, banded, and festooned in the richest man-
ner. Harpa ventricosa and Harpa articularis
are among the most beautiful.

Unhke some other beauties the Harpme
all appear to delight in their large feet. So
large are they im fact that their possessors are |
unable to accommodate them to their shells;
so after the fashion of Cinderella’s wicked sis-
ters, who “would not need to walk when they
were queens,” they are said to detach a portion
of the foot In emergencies.

‘SdHONTINd XAMAYW

“STTVIUAdMINI SONO

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‘VSOOIMINAA VITANVISVH ‘VANAHAYOd VAITC.
‘VLdITYOS VATT()

‘ATILXAL SANOO

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OLIVES. 1

As if the spirit of beauty had taken pos-
session of the Harpine and permeated them
through and through, we find the animals them-
selves, as well as their shells, bright with bands
and blotches of color.

There is a resemblance between some of
the olives and the cone shells, as shown in our
illustration; yet the differences in the living
animals, as well as in the shells themselves,
place them in distinct families. The Olivide
are destitute of an epidermis, which is one dif-
ference, as this characterizes the members of
the Conide. Other distinctions mark them,
yet each have the beautiful shining and _pic-
tured surfaces, as also has the Phaszanella,
the pretty pheasant shell of our engraving.

GROWTH OF SHELLS.

Nature is man’s best teacher. She unfolds

Her treasures to his search, unseals his eyes,

Illumes his mind, and purifies his heart ;

An influence breathes from all the sights and sounds
Of her existence ; she is Wisdom’s self.

STREET.

But the cunning Little People,
The Puck-Wudjies knew the secret.
LONGFELLOW.
154

XVIII.
GROWTH OF SHELLS.

“Hure’s a pretty palace with a good stout
front door,” announced Tom, displaying a _
pearly Zrochus.

“The name of that ‘front door,” said his
cousin, “is the operculum. Many shells are fur-
nished with opercula, but not all are so strong
and horny as this. You see it is even thicker
than the walls of the shell itself. It is devel-
oped upon a part of the foot of the animal and
moved by strong muscles, which enable the
little householder to shut his door quickly at
the approach of an enemy.

“In the baby Zrochus this operculum can
be discerned, and grows with the growth of the
animal and the other shell covering.”

“T don’t see how shells grow, anyway !”
exclaimed Tom. |

“Very likely you don’t,” said Miss Breme-
ly. “Nature does not make a parade of her

fine work, but if we care enough about her and
12 155

156 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

her mysteries to seek diligently for them she
rewards us generously. You have learned that
some shells secrete layers of nacre, with which
- many of our most beautiful ores are lmed and
which composes a great part of others. You
remember, too, how injuries inflicted by borers
are repaired. These facts open our eyes to a
part of the mystery. Shells were once a por-
tion of the mantle or delicate films which were
separated from it. These gradually harden,
becoming united to tissues previously thrown
off by the mantle. So layer is jomed to layer
in forming shells so delicate a wave may break
them or solid like these Zrochz. |

“Ridges, verices, and spines indicate some
time has elapsed between the deposition of the
layers.

“If shells are broken we can sometimes see
the process of shell growth, if patient enough
to watch the work and to wait the completion
of the delicate repairing. First a moist exuda-
tion—a secretion from the injured part of the
. little animal—covers the spot. Gradually this —
exudation becomes filmy upon exposure to the
air, and, as the process continues, grows calcare-
ous or horny according to the character of the
shell undergoing repairs.

“Tf the injury is sustained upon the walls

GROWTH OF SHELIS. 157

of a chamber which the animal has outgrown
and vacated, he does not again enter the ‘halls
of the past,’ but deliberately shuts out the past
and its injuries alike, by building a shelly wall
or partition entirely across that part of the
shell.

“The different depositions or layers are
sometimes shown when the edges of a shell be-
come broken, ‘They are also seen in the cameo
shells, in which the laminations are of different
colors. You will see what I mean by this,”
she said, unfastening from her collar a brooch
of shell cameo. Holding it to the hght she
displayed the delicate translucence of the
orange ground over which figures were carved
from the next layer in white relief. “This
shows the strata of the shell,” she said, “and
also how the colors have been turned to account
in carving the jewel. The shell from which this
was cut was known as Cass¢s cornuta ; its habi-
tat was the Indian Ocean.

“ All cameos are not colored like this. Some
are a pale salmon on an orange ground. Such
are cut from the Casszs rufa. Others, from C.
Madagascariensis and C. tuberosa, have white
ficures on dark claret-colored ground. Some
are cut from the Strombus gigas, which is the
pinky queen’s couch of the West Indies. These

158 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

have raised figures of yellow on a pink
ground. ,

“As has been seen, the shells used for these
jewels and called cameo shells are generally
the large Cassides. The carving of the cameos
is a fine art, carried to an exquisite perfection
by the Roman cameo cutters.”

“ What gives the different colors to shells?”
asked Tom.

“That is another of the mysteries in which
Nature has been chary of her confidences,” an-
swered Miss Bremely. “It seems to be in
some way the result of a secreting work done
by the border of the mantle. Light also is
their painter. We observe that shells near the
shore are richer and brighter in coloring than
those which are shut out from the sunlight in
deep ocean beds. ‘Tropic seas yield us the
most brilhantly colored shells, as tropic groves
produce birds of gayest plumage.

“George W. Tryon tells us in his Conchol-
ogy that ‘bivalves which habitually le upon
one side have the upper valve colored and —
pictured, while the under valve is white and
colorless.’ He also quotes authorities who
seem to have discovered in certain cases an
adaptation in the color of shells to the color of
objects upon which they rest.

GROWTH OF SHELLS. 159

“ After all that has been said the mystery
remains. The delicate tracery upon the olives,
the mottled surfaces of the Cyprwa, are myste-
ries still, and even ¢Azs remains unaccounted
for,” she added, taking a erita from the shelf.
“This tooth, like a point of ruby upon the col-
umella, is a pretty secret which we can not ex-
plain. This little jeweled point has given the
name of ‘bleeding tooth’ to the shell. We
can not resist the wish that we might be near
enough to Mother Nature’s heart to be taken
into her counsels. We would like to know
how and why she gave the little Nerita this
single red jewel. There are many things we
would like to know.”

“THINGS UNRECK’D OF.”

Great and gorgeous as is the display of Divine power
and wisdom in the things that are seen of all, it may
safely be affirmed that a far more extensive prospect of
these glories lay unheeded and unknown till the optician’s
art revealed it. Like the work of some mighty genius of
Oriental fable, the brazen tube is the key that unlocks a
world of wonder and beauty before invisible, which one
who has once gazed upon it can never forget, and never
cease to admire.— PHILIP HENRY GOSSE.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

SHAKESPEARE,
162

XIX.
“THINGS UNRECK’D OF.”

“You have told us of little specks called
eyes in some of our mollusca, but, Cousin Ellen,
can these little animals really see and hear and
do they ever speak to each other?” asked
Undine.

“Some of them at least have organs of
sight,” answered Miss Bremely, “and eyes
which have been considered rudimentary may
simply be so because our own are not delicate
enough to study them sufficiently.

“The eyes of the common snail are upon
long stalks which are raised or lowered, turned
this way and that as the animal travels, giving
it quite the air of an interested observer.
These eyes are very exposed upon their raised
tentacles, and Nature has provided a very curi-
ous device for keeping them from injury—
which is only another way of saying that the
kind Creator has a care for even the eyes of a

little snail. The point of these long stalks
163

164 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

upon which the eyes are located can be drawn
down through the tubes, as the finger of a
glove is drawn in. The tubes are so trans-
parent one is able to see the black eye as it
descends through the shortening tube to the
little case under the skin of the head i it
is safe.

“These little tentacles or eye stalks are so
sensitive of danger that the least impression is
telegraphed through the nervous organism of
the animal, and in an instant the eyes are out
of sight, and if danger still seems imminent, the
cautious little creature glides quickly into =
fortress.

“ As proof of the clear vision of snails it is
affirmed that they will go around obstacles m
their path, and they appear to be attracted by
bright colours. |

“ Among bivalves tiny specks have been
detected near the borders of the mantle, some
shining like jewels, others too small to be per-
ceived except by a most careful scrutiny with
a strong lens. These are supposed with good —
reason to be eyes. It has been observed that
a sea urchin will sometimes turn its spines as
if for self-defense in the direction in which a
hand approaches to capture it.

“The razor fish, even when buried in the

“THINGS UNRECK’D OF.” 165

sand with only the siphonal orifices exposed to
the light, perceives the slightest shadow falling
upon the water. This has led to closer study
of the siphonal margins where what seem tiny
eye specks have been detected.

“We are told that some of our shellfishes
are supplied with auditorial nerves, while an
external ear is credited to some. Yet their
whole external surface is so extremely sensitive,
aside from the especially sensitive tentacula,
that they perceive the approach of any object
by vibration; hence naturalists tell us we need
not expect a very strongly developed sense of
sound.

“Your last question I can best answer by
reading you what some wise students have
written concerning these interesting little crea-
tures. ‘If you ask what can be the use of ears
to a class of animals which are invariably dumb,
I answer though this is true with respect to
the great majority, yet it may be only that our
senses are too dull to perceive the delicate
sounds which they utter, and which may be
sufficiently audible to their more sensitive or- |
gans; and, besides, some mollusca can certainly
emit sounds audible to us. T'wo very elegant
species of sea-slug—viz., Solis punctata and
LTritonia arborescens (now called Dendronotus

166 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

arborescens )—certainly produce audible sounds.
Prof. Grant, who first observed the interesting
fact in some specimens of the latter which
he was keeping in an aquarium, says of the
sounds, that they resemble very much the
click of a steel wire on the side of the jar, one
stroke only given at a time and repeated at in-
tervals of a minute or two. . . . The sound is
longest and oftenest repeated when the Tri-
tonie are lively and move about, and is not
heard when they are cold and without any
motion. .. . The sound when im a glass vessel
is mellow and distinct . . . and obviously pro- |
ceeds from the mouth of the animal; at the
instant of stroke we observe the lips suddenly
separate as if to allow the water to rush into a
small vacuum formed within.’

“The following instance of affection among
snails has been recorded by a naturalist who
observed it: ‘A pair of Helix pomatia, or Ro-
man snails, were put in a garden for safe keep-
ing. One of them escaped, but, finding its
companion did not follow, it returned in quest
of its fellow-prisoner.’ ”

TROUBLE.

Life is full of ends, but every end is a new beginning,
and we are constantly coming to the point where we may
close one chapter, but we can always turn and open a new
and better and diviner chapter.—PHILLIPS BROOKS,

168

».O:S
TROUBLE.

“Cousin Exten has a new ring,” confided
Undine to Tom soon after.

“That so?” responded Tom, in an uninter-
ested voice.

“Tt’s lovely,” continued Undine; “a dear
little diamond and some pearls.”

“Don’t see what she wants of any more
rings!” ventured Tom, with more esprit. “She’s
more rings now than she can wear. Id a
thought she’d rather have a double-lens micro-
scope, or an alligator—J would !”

Without appearing to notice Tom’s prefer-
ence, Undine gently touched the heart of the
matter, and ‘Tom’s heart as well, by her next
announcement: “I guess Dr. McLean gave it
to her.”

Tom’s face grew troubled; he was silent a
moment and then asked, “Undine, you don’t
spose Dr. McLean cares anything about Cousin
Ellen, do you?”

169

170 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

“JT don’t see how he can help it, Tom; she’s
so lovely. Dr. McLean is nice, too,” continued
Undine; “the nicest man I ever saw—’cept
papa,” she added slowly.

“That's so,” exclaimed Tom, “if he is a
minister !”

“But, Tom, we can’t spare Cousin Ellen,”
continued Undine, with dimming eyes.

“Course we can’t!” agreed Tom. “Nor
we can’t spare the doctor either!” Evidently
the children’s problem was deepening.

At last Undine said with a sigh of cael
trouble and relief, “Vl talk mae papa about.
it when he comes; he always helps us.” And
Tom, with hands deep in his pockets, went out
whistling Three Blind Mice.

That evening with her head upon her
father’s broad shoulder, Undine sobbed out her
story of the beautiful ring and the anxieties
assailing her loving little heart.

Mr. Bremely laid his bearded face against
her cheek and for several minutes was silent.
His heart was far away with his own sweet, —
sad past. A tear upon his hand recalled him
to the child to whom he must not only give
strength and protection, but motherly comfort
as well. Patting her cheek and smiling he
agreed with her that.“they could not spare

TROUBLE. 172

Cousin Ellen nor Dr. McLean—nor anybody,”
and promised he would look into the matter.

Undine’s confidence in her father was only
equaled by her love, and soon she was laugh-
ing gleefully while she searched his pockets
for the strange money he told her he had
brought her.

One pocket she found filled with cowries,
yellow and shmimg. “Money cowries,” her
father told her they were called, because of
their commercial value in some parts of Asia
and Africa, to which places many tons weight
have been carried annually by traders. “Orange
cowries,” said her father, “are the crown jewels
of the Friendly Islanders, and are worn as
marks of chieftamship. But go further, Un-
dine; you will find other Cyprea that will
please your fancy.” And truly the elegant
“porcelain shells” she found in another pocket,
with their exquisite enamel and beautiful mot-
tling, called forth expressions of the greatest
delight. Among the richly colored was a
shell of purest white, all the fairer for its lone-
ness. It was the Ovulum ovum, or “poached
ego,” as it is often called. Another very curi-
ous to her was the Ovulwm volva, or “ weavers’
shuttle,” as it is named, because of the prolon-

gations of both ends of the shell.
pa as

172 THE UALL OF SHELLS.

From another pocket she brought out a
handful of tiny poimts. “What are these?”
she asked. “Are they ivory tusks of fairy
elephants, or horns of baby unicorns?” And
the rippling sound they made as they passed
through her fingers pleased her ears as perhaps
- the “jingle” of these Dentalian “guineas”
please the ear of the Indian money getter. The
value of Dentalia, or “ toothshells,” she learned,
was determined by the length of the shells.

Later that evening, when Undine and Tom
had sailed away to the universe of dreams, Dr.
McLean with Miss Bremely paused before the
open door of the library. Mr. Bremely sat
within, a book was open before him, but he
could not read. His heart was stirred with a
mighty past. An angel had come down that
evening and troubled its waters. |

The flush upon Miss Bremely’s cheeks was
again like the pink tint of shells, and dimples
played among her blushes, while Dr. McLean
looked as happy as a king; yet enigmatical as
it seemed, they assured Mr. Bremely they came
because they were in sore trouble. The doc-
tor had learned, like Undine, that he could not
spare Miss Bremely; and she that she could
not spare Dr. Lean; and both, like the chil-
dren, that they “could not spare anybody.”

TROUBLE. 173

The consultation was long, but it was final-
ly decided that Dr. McLean should leave his
boarding house, and that the cottage among
the acacia trees should for a time at least be-
come the manse.

Mr. Bremely especially urged this, since
business called him soon to South America for
an absence of months.

Twice for the Bremelys, had the acacia
trees lit their pale tapers of bloom. Ere they
faded the second time, there was a wedding in
the cottage and the acacia trees waved like
palms with glory-hghted tops.

Trouble bad passed. Dr. and Mrs. McLean
walked in the heavenly peace of a true
marriage.

Undine was serenely happy. Tom was
jubilant. Mr. Bremely, with sad, glad eyes,
blessed those whose love in turn was his
blessing.

Among the gifts upon the occasion were
two, for which the doctor was responsible,
marked for the children: Undine found her
package to contain the long-desired microscope,
while Tom rejoiced over the coveted young
alligator.

INDEX.

Abalona, 64.

Acelephe, 53.

Algee, Chap. IX.
Ammonite, 86..

Anomia, 139.

Argonauta Argo, 83.
Argonaut, Chap. X.
Asteria, 111.

Avicula margaritifera, 61.
Awabi, 65.

Barnacles, Chap. XIV.
Borer, 20, 140, 141.

Byssus spinners, Chap. XVI.

Cassides, 165.
Cassis cornuta, 157.
Cassis rufa, 157.

Cassis madagascariensis, 157.

Cassis tuberosa, 157.
Cerripeda, 118.
Chitonide, 95.

Chiton Katherina, 95.
Chlorospermes, 75.
Comatula rosacea, 111.
Conida, 151.
Corallium rubrum, 125, 129.
Cornua Ammonis, 87.
Cowries, 171.
Crepidula, 51.
Crinoides, 111, 114.
Cyprea, 171.

Dendronotus arborescens, 165.
Dentalia, 172.

Echinoidea, 114.
Echinodermata, Chap. XIII.
Kchinus, Chap. XIII.

Feathery star, 111.
Fulgur canaliculatus, 18.
Fulgur carica, 18.

Glycimeris generosa, 139.
Gorgonide, 124.
Gorgon, Chap. XV.

Haliotis, 8, Chap. XVIII.
Haliotidee, 64.

Harpa articularis, 150.
Harpa ventricosa, 146.
Helix pomatia, 166.
Hermit crab, Chap. XV.
Holothurian, 112, 118.
Holothurida, 114.
Hydroids, 45, 56, 57.

Tanthina fragilis, 37, 38.
Limpet, 5, 16, 17, 66.
Mactra solidissima, 94.

Malleus vulgaris, 64.
Mandrapora formosa, 1380.

179

176 THE HALL OF SHELLS.

Medusa, 47, 57, Chap. VIL.
Melanospermee, 75.
Mermaid’s eradle, 93, 97.
Mermaid’s lace, 79.

Microscopic shells, Chap. LV.

Murex brandis, 28.
Murex palma-rosa, 29.
Murex princeps, 30.
Murex radix, 29.
Murex tinuispina, 29.
Murex tribulus, 29.
Murex trunculus, 28.
Murexes, Chap. III, 27.

Nautilus, 84, 86, Chap. XI.

Oliva biplicata, 149.

Oliva seripta, Chap. X VIIL

Olivella, 146.

Olives, Chap. XVIII.
Operculum, 154.

~ Ovulum ovum, 171.

Ovulum volva, 171.

Oyster, 8, Chap. VIII.

Patella, Chap. II.

Patella vulgatus, 22.
Pearls, Chap. VIII.
Pecten, Chap. II, 13, 14, 15.
Pecten Jacobeus, 22.
Phalos, 141.

Phasianella, 151.

- Physalia, 54.

Pinna, 140.

Pinna noblis, 64.

Portuguese man-of-war, Chap. VII.

Purpuras, Chap. III.

i

Razor fishes, 22, Chap. XVI, 164.

Rhodospermeex, 75.

Salpe, 45.
Sand dollar, Chap. XIII.

Sapphirina ovatolanceolata, 45.

Sargasso Sea, 76.
Sargassum bacciferum, 76.
Scalaria, 45.

Scallop, Chap. II, 18, 14, 15.

Scheveningen shells, Chap. XIL

Sea fan, Chap. XV.
Sea slugs, 165.

Sea snails, 22.

Sea urchin, Chap. XIII.
Serpula, 22.
Siphonida, 139.
Solaster popposus, 111.
Solen, 138.

Snails, 163, 164.
Starfish, 8, Chap. XIIL.
Strombus gigas, 157.

Tradacna gigas, 95.
Triton tritonis, 40.

Triton variegatus, 40.
Tritonia, 39.

Tritonia arborescens, 165.
Tritoniaz, 166.

) Trochus, 16565.

Tubipora musica, 130.
Unio Hyria, 63.

Venus Californiensis, 94.
Venus mercenaria, 94.

; Worm cases, 40.

THE END

CSE
—P 2 a
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Ou THE OLD FRONTIER. With to full-page
Illustrations. I2mo. Cloth, $1.50.

“¢ A capital story of life in the middie of the last century. - The characters in-
troduced really live and talk, and the story recommends itself not only to boys and
girls but to their parents. ”__ New York Times.

HE BATTLE OF NEW VORK. With aus

page Illustrations and colored Frontispiece. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50, .

“Young people who are interested in the ever-thrilling story of the great feet
will find in this romance a wonderfully graphic picture of New York in war time.’
Boston Traveller.

7 eevee SMOKE. A Story of the Sioux Indians.
With 12 full-page Illustrations by F. S. DELLENBAUGH, portraits
of Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, and other chiefs, and 72 head and
tail pieces representing the various implements and surround-
ings of Indian life. -I2mo. Cloth, $1.50.

Tris not only a story of adventure, but the volume abounds in information con-
cerning this most powerful of remaining Indian tribes. The work of the author has
been well supplemented by the artist.””— Boston Traveller.

ROWDED OUT O' CROFIELD. The Stenger
country boy who fought his way to success in the great metropolis.
With 23 Illustrations by C. T. HILL. I2mo. Cloth, $1.50.

‘‘ There are few writers who know how to meet the tastes and needs of boys better
than does William O. Stoddard. This excellent story teaches boys to be men, not prigs

or Indian hunters. If our boys would read more such books, and less of the blood and- .

thunder order, it would be rare good fortune.” —Detrott Free Press.

New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue.

De APPLETON. & -CO.’S ‘PUBLICATIONS.

BOOKS BY HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH.

HE WAMPUM BELT ; or, The Fatrest Page of
History. A Tale of William Penn’s Treaty with the Indians.
With 6 full-page Lllustrations. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.

The series of graphic historical pictures which Mr. Butterworth places before the
readers of his new book includes scenes among the Delaware Indians, the coming of
William Penu, the making of the Great Treaty, and other phases of Penn’s life as the
founder of a commonwealth and one of the ‘‘ Creators of Liberty.”

HE KNIGHT OF LIBERTY. A Tale of the
Fortunes of Lafayette. With 6 full-page Illustrations. I2mo.
Cloth, $1.50.

<¢ The work abounds in noble sentiments and lofty ideals. A book that may be read
with profit.” —Detrozt Tribune.

‘“No better reading for the young man can be imagined than this fascinating narra-
tive.” —Bostou Traveller.

WE PATRIOT SCHOOLMASTER. A Yale of
the Minute Men and the Sons of Liberty. With 6 full-page
Illustrations by H. WINTHROP PEIRCE. I2mo. Cloth, $1.50.

*« Exciting history, and it is rendered fascinating to boy readers. . . . Can be rec-
ommended as a terse, stirring, and admirable story, and it throbs throughout with the
best spirit of Americanism.” —New York Mailand Express.

ae HAE BOYHOOD. OF LINCOLN. A ‘Story of
the Black Hawk War and the Tunker Schoolmaster. With 12
Illustrations and colored Frontispiece. 1I2mo. Cloth, $1.50.

“One of the best stories for youthful readers that has ever been written.’’—Aostox
Budget.

**A work which should be put into the hands of every American boy.” —Philadel-
phia Item.

/ meeDOVS OF GREENWAY COURT. A Story
of the Early Years of Washington. With 10 full-page Illus-
trations. I2mo. Cloth, $1.50.

**The book is replete with picturesque incidents and legends of hunting exploits
and adventures, and the figure of young Washington is shown in a light which will be
sure to enlist the interest of young readers.’’—Chicago Herald.

me LOG SCHOOLHOUSE-ON THE CO-
LUMBIA. With 13 full-page Illustrations by J. CARTER
BEARD, E. J. AUSTEN, and Others. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.

_ “This book will charm all who turn its pages, There are few books of popular
information concerning the pioneers of the great Northwest, and this one is worthy
of sincere praise.”’—Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue.

D. APPLETON & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS.

YOUNG HEROES OF OUR NAVY.

gee ee FARRAGUT. By James BARNES,

author of “ For King or Country,” etc. Illustrated by Carlton
T. Chapman. 12mo. Cloth, $1.00.

The adventures of Farragut’s first years in the navy and the brilliant
cruise of the Essex under Captain Porter are pictured by an author who has
had exceptional advantages in the preparation of his graphic and stirring -
story.

ee TUR AND SOMERS. By Mouty ELuwior
SEAWELL, author of “ Paul Jones,” ‘ Little Jarvis,” etc. With
6 full-page Illustrations by J. O. Davidson and Others. tI2mo.
Cloth, $1.00.

** The tale is exceedingly well told. It is full of interesting incidents, and the in-
terest is maintained throughout. It is in every way a book which boys will enjoy, and
which it will be well for them to read.””— Milwaukee Fournadl.

ao UL JONES. By Morty ELtiot SEAWELL. With
8 full-page Illustrations. 12mo. Cloth, $1.00.

«Tt is both romance and history, and will retain the attention of either the boy or
man who begins to read this account of the most dashing sailor that ever wore a uni-
form.” — St. Louis Republic.

‘© A concise, clear sketch of the ranking officer of the Continental marine, who in
his day piayed a large part and did it so well as to command the applause of every ©
patriotic American. To forget the name of Paul Jones would be an act of national
ingratitude.” —Chicago Inter-Ocean.

1 BAe Es PAULDING.. A tme sarge
the War of 1812. By MoLtity ELLiIoT SEAWELL. With 6 full-
page Illustrations. I2mo. Cloth, $1.00.

‘‘ The story is told in a breezy, pleasant style that can not fail to capture the farcy
of young readers, and imparts much historical knowledge at the same time, while the
i lustrations will help the understanding of the events described. Itisan excellent hook
for boys, and even the girls will be interested in it.” —Brooklyn Standard-Union.

/ ITTLE JARVIS. The story of the heroic mid-
shipman of the frigate ‘‘ Constellation.” By MOLLy ELLIoT.
SEAWELL. With 6 full-page Illustrations. 1I2mo. Cloth, $1.00.

“Not since Dr. Edward Evcrett Hale’s classic, ‘The Man without a Country,’ has
there been published a more stirring lesson in patriotism.’’— Boston Beacon.

“Ttis what a boy would call ‘a real boy’s’ book.” —Charleston News and Courier.

New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue.

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