72 



WESTERN SERIES OF READERS. 



used them for the heads of their harpoons and 

 fish-spears. 



" The shells are wrinkled," wrote Captain Dixon, 

 and if you will notice Figure 27, you will see some 

 of the wrinkles of which he speaks. This mussel 

 is very abundant in rocky places up and down the 

 coast. The picture represents a common-sized 

 shell, but in places where they are not often mo- 

 lested, they glow much larger. The color of the 

 shell is a rich bluish purple, sometimes mixed 



with white and brown. 

 When they are polished, 

 some of them are very 

 beautiful. 



Like all of the bivalve 

 mollusks, tho young mus- 

 sels are sent out into the 

 ocean as tiny swimming 

 things that would soon 

 perish if they did not 

 quickly find a place of 

 refuge. "They find this 

 most commonly on the 

 face of a rock, for they 

 have a wonderful power 

 of spinning a set of strong, 

 horny threads, called a 



Captain George Dixon was 

 the commander of a vessel 

 named the Queen Charlotte. 

 Captain Portlock command- 

 ed a larger vessel, called the 

 King George. These two ves- 

 sels were sent out from Eng- 

 land in the year 1785, to ex- 

 plore the northwest coast of 

 America and establish trade 

 relations with the natives. 

 The scheme was very success- 

 ful, and large quantities of 

 fine furs were purchased by 

 these captains, which they 

 took to China and sold at 

 a great profit. The ves- 

 sels touched several times at 

 the Sandwich Islands, which 

 had been discovered a few 

 years before by Captain 

 Cook. After sailing round 

 the world, they returned to 

 England in 1788. An ac- 

 count of the voyage was 

 published in 1789. 



