RANDOM NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY. 



An Introduction to a Series of Papers on 

 the Shell-Bearing Mollusca of 

 Rhode Island. 



[by HORACE F. CARPENTER. 



The study of shells, aside from the tech- 

 nicalities of scientific description, is beauti- 

 ful and interesting. The gaily colored and 

 fantastic marked shells of the tropics, had 

 been gathered and preserved b}- sailors and 

 travelers, for their beauty or their rarity, 

 long before the anatomist had observed and 

 described the animals contained in them, or 

 before conchology had taken its place among 

 the natural sciences. 



There are many people who say, What is 

 the use of these things ? they are of no ben- 

 efit to man unless they have a commercial 

 value. I'or the benefit of such persons who 

 can see no beauty or pleasure in anything 

 which does not represent money, I would 

 say, that every shell, however humble in ap- 

 pearance, or however common in certain 

 localities, has its market value, established 

 by dealers in such things in all the large 

 cities of the world, whose business consists 

 in buying and selling objects like those I 

 am about to describe. Rare species have 

 great value in the eyes of such dealers. 

 Two hundred and fifty dollars have been 

 paid for a single specimen of Conns gloria- 

 maris, and one hundred and fifty for a spe- 

 cimen of Cypriea umbilicata ; while in West- 

 ern Africa, the Cyprsea moneta is used for 

 money itself, many tons of this shell being 

 annuall}' collected in the Pacific, and carried 

 to Liverpool to be again exported for barter 

 with the native tribes of Africa. 



That trading in these insignicfiant objects 

 is remunerative, maj- be shown from the 

 fact, that one of the largest dealers in Lon- 

 don told me that his annual net profit from 

 the sale of shells, fossils, etc., amounted to 

 £1500 to £2000 sterling. A detailed ac- 

 count of the uses to which shells are put 

 would fill a volume ; suffice it to say, that in 

 the preparation of hundreds of articles of 

 necessity and of luxury, and in the mechan- 

 ical arts, shells play a prominent part. 



The animals which inhabit the shells of 

 the various classes of the type Mollusca, 

 differ from each other in their appearance 

 and in their habits, as much perhaps, as do 

 the higher animals. A large proportion of 



the marine Mollusca are carnivorous, feeding 

 upon each other, as well as upon other spe- 

 cies, which are vegetable eaters, and in their 

 turn furnish food for millions of other crea- 

 tures. Animals of every rank in the scale 

 of being, and of every type, class and order, 

 feed more or less upon the Mollusca. Man 

 also, in common with the higher animals, 

 subsists to a great extent upon them. 



Snails are considered a great delicacy in 

 France, Spain, and Switzerland, and in Italy, 

 where they are fattened for the market in 

 pens or sties. In Paris they are to be found 

 in the restaurants, cooked and stuffed with 

 some green herb, and are also sold in the 

 streets, alive. 



In England, a small marine snail, Littor- 

 ina littorea, is sold by old women at the 

 street corners, to people, who after picking 

 out the boiled animal with a pin, throw the 

 shell in the gutters. Buccinum undatum, 

 Cardium edule, and Mytillus edulis form a 

 large part of the food of the poorer classes 

 in Great Britain. Pholas costata may be 

 seen daily in the markets of Havana, and 

 the Haliotis, or pearly ear shell, is collected 

 by thousands on the coasts of California by 

 the Chinese, who eat the animal and send 

 the shells to China, there to be manufac- 

 tured into various articles of virtu. 



In our own state, who can say how many 

 oysters, clams, quahaugs, scallops and mus- 

 sels are annually devoured by our citizens. 

 Those who advocate a fish diet on account 

 of the phosphorous, or brain food contained 

 in it, might with equal propriety include the 

 Mollusca, as they also contain a large pro- 

 portion of phosphorus. 



The science of Conchologj' is one in which 

 ladies may engage, with much profit and 

 pleasure to themselves and to others. There 

 are many ladies in different parts of Europe 

 who have accumulated quite extensive col- 

 lections of shells, and who have added largely 

 to our stock of knowledge by their personal 

 researches. In America, among many who 

 have studied and collected our shells, may 

 be mentioned Miss Annie E. Law, of Con- 

 cord, East Tennessee, who has personally 

 explored the Holston River for a distance 

 of twenty miles, and has published in the 

 American Journal of Conchology for 1870, 

 a list of the fluviatile shells found by her in 

 that river, numbering ninety-five species ; 

 also a synopsis of the land shells of East 

 Tennessee, collected by her and numbering 



