24 



WEST COAST SHELLS 



consider is one that very 

 few of us will ever collect, 

 tor it lives in the ocean 

 where the water is very 

 deep, from one to two 

 miles being recorded by 

 the steamship "Albatross" 

 at some of the stations 

 where it was dredged. A 

 slightly diminished view 

 is shown in Figure lo. Its 

 name is Solemya Johns oni, 

 Dall, which may be trans- 

 lated into English as John- 

 son's Solemya. It is a 

 singular shell, with fingers 

 of epidermis reaching out 

 nearly an inch beyond the 

 edge of the firm portion, 

 as is shown in the figure. 

 The whole shell is about 

 four and a half inches 

 long. It has been dredged from deep water off vari- 

 ous parts of the coast as far north as Puget Sound. 

 The next shell on our list is named Nucula cas- 

 trensis^ Hinds, the Camp Nut-shell. It is well 

 named, for the shell resembles a three-cornered, dark 

 brown nut, while its sides have sculptured markings, 

 reminding one of many steep-walled tents. Inter- 

 nally it is beautifully pearly, and it has about seven 

 little hinge-teeth on each side. The whole shell is 

 wedge-shaped, and is about as large as a good sized 



Fig. 10, X \ (*) 



