So look ahead. You enjoy your shells, else you would not have both- 

 ered to maintain a collection. Do not allow that enjoyment to fade when 

 other hands than yours must take over. With the ever-growing interest in 

 malacology, school and university collections are being started all over our 

 country. As a nucleus or addition to the new collection, a ready-made one 

 is a bonanza indeed. You may be inspired to help rebuild a foreign collec- 

 tion destroyed in the ravages of war; there are many such, and any of our 

 leading malacologists can put you in touch with deserving cases. Or a 

 youngster may need the spur which the inheritance of a shell collection will 

 provide and be inspired to embark upon a scientific career. But here a word 

 of caution is in order: know the child. Be sure that he or she is genuinely 

 interested and eager to study; every child is anxious to possess shells but in 

 all but a few cases the interest will fade as the novelty wears away. 



Unless you know that your collection contains specimens of value to 

 the larger museums, it is best to seek your recipient elsewhere. The really 

 large collections are likely to be helped but little by shells from the ama- 

 teur's collection and the duplicates may be regarded as a nuisance rather 

 than a benefit. 



In any event, it is none too soon to refilect on what may happen to 

 your shells unless you make your wishes known. Then act accordingly. 

 It is later than you think! 



Cheap Containers for Snails and Clams. Cabinet specimens are usually 

 placed in trays of various sizes, as described, in the article by R. Tucker 

 Abbott. Buying trays ready made can be expensive and making one's own 

 and sphaeriid clams. They are too small for many Naiades, which must be 

 kept in larger boxes or trays. Cigarette boxes are used to house the collec- 

 tions of Pleistocene Mollusca and for many specimens of fossils in my 

 department. Large numbers of them will fit into trays 2^/2 or 31/2 inches 

 try using flip-top cigarette boxes for containers. They are 3'^^ x 2^/4 x Y^ 

 inches and they will hold the majority of our land and freshwater snails 

 deep. They are labeled with strips of drafting tape stuck to the top or side 

 trays can be tedious. If you are a heavy smoker or have friends who are, 

 of the box, depending on the depth of the trays in which they are to be 

 housed. — AuRELE La Rocque 



Method of Sorting Drift. From the superficially dried drift material, the 

 larger bits of wood are first removed. Then the drift is boiled in a large pot 

 for 5 minutes and cooled off by adding cold water. When the mixture is 

 stirred, all the shells sink to the bottom because during the boiling the air 

 was expelled from them and during the cooling the steam in them con- 

 densed. Wood and bits of plants, however, remain floating on the surface 

 and are poured off. This process, if necessary, can be repeated by the 

 addition of more water. — A. Tetens, Nachr. 51, pp. 127-128 (1919), quoted 

 in S. H. Jacckel, "Prakticum der Weichtierkunde," Berlin, 1953. Translated 

 by M. K. Jacobson 



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