WEST COAST SHELLS 



CHAPTER I 



LAMP-SHELLS AND THEIR ALLIES 



Almost everybody knows something about sea- 

 shells. They are found in nearly every home and 

 are used for many different purposes. Some hand- 

 some ones are perched in parlors as choice ornaments, 

 while round and smooth kinds are given to babies 

 for playthings. The very common varieties, like 

 oyster-shells, are pounded up for the chickens to eat, 

 and by them are converted into the material for egg- 

 shells, so necessary for the safe handling of an 

 important article of food. Besides the many forms 

 from the sea there are others that are frequently 

 found in lakes, rivers and smaller streams, while 

 snail-shells are occasionally picked up under old 

 boards or in the woods, or possibly a live snail is found 

 "with his house on his back." The creatures that pro- 

 duce shells are called Mollusks, which really means 

 soft animals. This name of course refers to their 

 bodies, which never have any bones, for the shells 

 which protect them are often as hard as stones. 



Some mollusks, however, never have shells at all, 

 but crawl around naked and trust to good luck for 

 protection. It saves them a lot of work, both in build- 

 ing shells and carrying them around, and so they 

 have quite an advantage in some ways over their 

 better protected neighbors. We com.monly call 



