THE OYSTER AND ITS RELATIVES 



Several days after our trip down the bay, Professor Parker invited 

 us to go to Boston with him and visit one of the museums of that 

 city, where we might together study some of the different varieties 

 of bivalve mollusks. We accordingly took an early train, which carried 

 us to Boston in a little over an hour. 



Without delay he conducted us to the museum, which was situated 

 but a short distance from the station. We entered the square, massive 

 building, passed by numerous cases filled with minerals and geological 

 specimens, and ascended to the first gallery, where the mollusks were 

 located. The shells filled the cases in several rooms, and to one 

 of these the Professor led us. In this case were some of the most 

 beautiful shells we had ever seen. 



"The clams, oysters, and mussels belong to the class Pdecypoda" 

 said Professor Parker, " which is the lowest, or rather the simplest, 

 of the branch of animals' which we call the Mollusca. As you have 

 already learned, the animal is encased between two shelly valves made 

 of carbonate of lime. Some of the bivalves live in the mud, in various 

 positions, and are able to move from place to place at will. Others, 

 like the oyster, live attached to some object at the bottom of the sea, 

 such as a stone, a piece of wood, or the piling of an old wharf, and 

 are not able to travel about as are their more fortunate relatives, 

 the quahog and the clam. Still other bivalves attach themselves by 

 a byssus composed of silk - like threads, which anchor their shells 

 to stones, sticks, and other foreign objects. 



" The shells in the case before us are among the most attractive 

 of the bivalves. They belong to the family Ven&ridc/B, or Venus shells; 

 and the little, shelly skeleton is ornamented by many bright colors, 

 the patterns occurring in spots, dashes, zigzag lines, and rays. Some 

 varieties, such as the spiny Venus, Ct/thera lupinaria, have the posterior 

 end of the shell armed with long, sharp, curved spines, and the shell 

 is also frilled in a beautiful manner. The common quahog, or round 

 clam, which you found so plentifully on our excursion to Rocky Point, 

 is a prominent member of this family on account of its value as an 

 article of food along the whole Atlantic coast, where it is much esteemed. 



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