No. 12. CHAMA. 

 Clamp Shell. Inhabitant a Tethys. 



Chama shell bivalve, rather coarse hinge, with a callous gilbosity obliquely 

 inserted into an oblique hollow, anterior slope closed. The Chama is so 

 termed from the gaping observable in two of its species. Large pearls are 

 sometimes found in the Chama Gigas. One in the possession of the late Sir 

 Joseph Banks, was valued at between two and three hundred pounds sterling, 

 the color a dirty white, or yellowish brown, which when polished is as beau- 

 tifully irriducent as the Opal (JMaive.) 



The Chama genus is divided, by the last French writers, into Tridacna, (to 

 which Chama Gigas belong,) Hyppopus, Cardita, and Isocardia: this last is 

 founded on the peculiar structure of the Chama Cor of Linnaeus, and is thought 

 an excellent genus. 



These, like the last genus, all inhabit the sea, and are found in very deep 

 water: they are all edible. Some species of the Chama grow to an uncommon 

 size: the bear-paw clamp shells, usually of a yellowish cast, with pink spots, 

 are found from one inch to near a foot in length. But this appears as nothing, 

 when compared with the giant clamp, which from a quarter of an inch will 

 grow to the enormous size of four and a half feet in breadth, and will weigh 

 from 100 to 140 pounds. Specimens occur in most public museums of nat- 

 ural history. In Europe, one individual of this species is recorded (by conch- 

 ological writers) that weighed 532 pounds; including both shell and animal, 

 and the latter was so large as to furnish one hundred and twenty men with 

 food for a meal; and it is recorded, that by the sudden collapsing or snapping 

 of its valves, it would cut asunder a cable rope, or take off the hand of a man. 



This enormous species inhabits the Indian Seas. Those of the largest 

 size we are acquainted with, are from the seas contiguous to the Island of 

 Borneo, from whence they are occasionally brought, as objects of curiosity, 

 into Europe, and kept as ornaments in gardens. During the early part of the 

 last century, they were in much request for the ornament or decoration of 

 fountains, grottos, and reservoirs of water, especially in Italy. This gigantic 

 shell was perfectly familiar to the poets and sculptors of antiquity. Venus is 



