CHAPTER V 



Collecting 

 American Seashells 



Instructions for collecting seashells are much akin to revelations of the 

 secrets of good cooking. Everyone has his favorite methods and, despite 

 the most expert advice one may obtain from books, experience is the surest 

 path to success. There are, however, a number of fundamentals which will 

 help guide the collector in obtaining a representative series of our seashells 

 with the least trouble. The hints offered here are more in the order of how 

 collecting problems may be solved than a revelation of how and where to 

 find rare specimens. 



The most successful collectors mix together four ingredients to obtain 

 what appears to most of us "unusual luck" in finding good shells. These 

 are a knowledge of the habits of mollusks, a familiarization with the physical 

 conditions of the ocean and the seashore, a sensible choice of collecting equip- 

 ment and, perhaps most important, a large proportion of perseverance. The 

 first three of these may be acquired, to some degree at least, from books and 

 from the advice of veteran collectors, but only keen observation in the field 

 and many hours of trial collecting will develop satisfactory techniques. It 

 is true, of course, that strolling the more productive beaches at certain times 

 of year will produce encouraging results, but soon the common species have 

 been collected and more often than not the remaining specimens are far 

 from perfect. The moment a collector ceases to be a beachcomber and begins 

 to search for living mollusks in their natural haunts he has opened unlimited 

 possibilities of acquiring a remarkably beautiful and complete collection. 



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