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POPULAR SGIENCU MONTHLY. 



wliite, and look like little peaked nightcaps. One is tlie cup-and- 

 saucer limpet, and indeed it miglit easily serve as such, on the 

 table of some water sprite. It is glistening brown in color and 

 looks like porcelain. The slipper limpets or boat shells are very- 

 pretty, being shaped like little rowboats with one seat. The 

 shallow- water boats are flat-bottomed and thin, while the deep- 

 water ones are much stouter and round-bottomed. Limpets each 

 have a particular spot on the rock to which they attach them- 

 selves, and when they wander off between the tides for their 

 dinners of seaweed they always return to the same spot. If you 

 should try to pull a limpet off of his stone you would find it very 

 hard work, for his strong foot sucks the rock with great force, 

 and as soon as he felt you pulling or prying he would redouble 

 his energies to cling to his home and would probably succeed. 



A king among shells is the Haliotis, or, as the Spaniards call it, 

 ahalone. It is found in all collections, and is extensively used 

 for its pearly lining in the manufacture of buttons, buckles, and 

 other ornaments. It is sometimes called the ear shell, on account 



JVatica heros (1) and egg mass (2), known as "sand-saucer." 



of its resemblance to the outline of the human ear. In life the 

 animal thrusts his tentacles out through the row of holes along 

 the edge. On the outside the shell is rough, often closely resem- 

 bling the rocks on which it lives. The animals are eaten in 

 Europe and by the Chinese in California. While I was living 

 in San Francisco a Chinaman went out on to the rocks at low 

 tide to gather some. As he attempted to wrench one from its 



