vi Preface 



of the country, where these forms are now unknown in 

 the markets, a knowledge of their great value as food 

 mollusks, for our entire coast line is capable of producing 

 either the soft or the hard clam. 



Mr. Roosevelt uttered a great truth when he stated that 

 the most important problem confronting the nation is the 

 conservation of its natural resources; and the wonderful 

 awakening of the people to that truth, for which he more 

 than any other person is responsible, is one of the most 

 important events that has occurred in America during a 

 century of waste and extravagance. An attempt has here 

 been made to show that even the resources of the " great 

 and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable," 

 are very far from being inexhaustible, as many seem to 

 imagine; but also that some of its useful forms may, by 

 directing the processes of nature that are at the same time 

 productive of so great bounty and so great waste, not 

 only be conserved, but made to produce even on waste 

 places greater harvests than ever before existed. 



Acknowledgment for the use of figures is gratefully 

 made to the United States Bureau of Fisheries, to various 

 state fish commissions, to the Johns Hopkins University 

 Press, and to the American Museum of Natural History 

 of New York. All but one of the text figures are my 

 own, and, with a few obvious exceptions, are drawn from 

 my own preparations. 



WlLLIAMSTOWN, MASS., 



January, 1910. 



