40 A HUNT FOR OLIVES. 



Now I was ready for work and taking up my hoe 

 I began to dig in the sand. There was plent}' of sand 

 to dig in, in fact, too much of it, for it apparently 

 took up all the room and left no place for shells. 



At length I struck upon a spot where a little stream 

 of water was oozing out from the bank of sand. As 

 I scraped away the surface, I saw something which 

 would have made me dance for joy had I not been 

 weighed down by the long boots. For there, in very 

 truth, was a live Olive, with its graceful shell shaped 

 like Fig. 20, and a beautiful, pearl-colored body. 

 It quickly withdrew this into the shell and closed 

 the aperture with a very insignificant scale, which 

 seemed to be an apology for an operculum. 



I picked up the pretty little creature, and 

 scientifically mused somewhat as follows : 

 The Latin name for this mollusk is Oli- 

 vella biplicata^ Sby., Ol-i-vel'-la bi-pli-ca'- 

 ta. The shell is about an inch long, 

 apparently smooth and polished, yet show- 

 ing under the microscope very fine and 

 pQ;^ beautiful reticulations. The spire is short, 

 the aperture long and narrow, the canal a mere notch, 

 and the outer lip thin edged. . Upon the inner wall 

 of the aperture is a lump of white enamel, and at the 

 base of the columella are two little folds, which are 

 referred to in the name bipUcata^ twice folded. The 

 color of the shell varies much in different specimens ; 

 some are almost pure white, others are ver>' dark, but 

 most of them are dove-colored, with purple trim- 

 mings. They are about the size and shape of the 

 olives of our orchards, and their name has no myster}' 

 connected with it, but doubtless refers to their appear- 

 ance. 



