Man and Molhisks 11 



shell ornaments on boxes, screens and frames were popular in Early Vic- 

 torian drawing rooms. The founding brothers, Marcus and Samuel Samuel, 

 traded in shells from all parts of the globe, but as a side line they began to 

 deal in the sale of kerosene. With the advent of the new "parafine oil" lamps 

 and, later, the combustion engine, it was not long before they were market- 

 ing oil exclusively. Soon afterward their company was merged with the 

 Royal Dutch interests. Until 1904 they used a trademark emblem patterned 

 after the Sun-rayed Tellin (Tellina radiata of the West Indies), but this was 

 later replaced by the now world-famous emblem of the European Jacob's 

 Scallop {Fecten jacobaeus) . The scallop on the letterhead of the company's 

 stationery is a fossil species from California. 



The 200-odd oil tankers of the Shell Oil Company are named after 

 various genera of mollusks, the first ship launched being christened the S. S. 

 Murex. Aboard each vessel, a specimen of her namesake mollusk is mounted 

 in a glass exhibit case. Naming and securing shells for the first hundred ships 

 was comparatively easy, but recently the choice of new names has resulted 

 in the unfortunate selection of obscure genera based on rare and, in some 

 cases, microscopic species. Some ships bear names based on the same genus 

 — nautical synonyms! 



The use of the scallop is a very ancient one. As a source of food and 

 as an eating dish it was used in prehistoric times. It is pictured on the coins 

 of the early Phoenician outpost of Saguntum (now Murviedro, Spain) . All 

 through the middle ages the scallop shell was used as a religious symbol, espe- 

 cially in connection with pilgrimages to the shrine of Saint James at Com- 

 postella and the crusades to the Holy Land. Three different popes granted 

 a faculty to the Archbishops of Compostella to excommunicate all who sold 

 scallop shells to pilgrims anywhere except in the city of Compostella. Today 

 many of the family shields of England bear scallop shells, indicating that 

 their ancestors made pilgrimages to the Holy Land. 



It is interesting to note that one of the earliest shell collections known 

 to us contained a Jacob's Scallop. This was unearthed from the ruins of 

 Pompeii, together with Comis textile and the Pearl Oyster of the Indian 

 Ocean, in what appears to have been a natural history collection. It is not 

 beyond the realm of possibility that this was the remains of the Natural His- 

 tory Society of Pompeii, of which the distinguished naturalist, Pliny, was 

 probably a member. It was Pliny who first recorded the swimming activ- 

 ities of the scallop, and he observed that it was able to dart above and skip 

 along the surface of the water. 



In our modem age of synthetic dyes and highly mechanized textile 

 industries, we little appreciate the part played by dye-producing mollusks 

 in the history of the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean. The power 

 and fame of the Phoenicians, who were the great traders, navigators and 



