CHAPTER II. 



BoLiNAS — The Captain's Story — Mt. Tamalpais— The 

 June Morning — Duxbury Reef — The First Sheli. — 

 Its Parts and Their Names — Growth of the Shell 

 — Spiral Lines and Lines of Growth — Varices — 

 Repairs — Color — Operculum — Foot — Head — Naked 

 Slugs — Mollusks — Gasteropods — Names — Why in 

 Latin — Pronunciation — Generic and Specific 

 Names — Authorities. 



ONE fine June morning, some years ago, I found 

 myself in the pretty little town of Bolinas. The 

 village is nestled among the cliffs and along the shores 

 of Bolinas Bay, which is the first inlet north of the 

 great entrance to the Bay of San Francisco. Bolinas, 

 or Baulines, as you will find it spelled on some maps, 

 is only about ten miles north of the Golden Gate, but 

 it is so shut in by a high mountain on the east, and 

 by . the great Pacific on the west, that you would 

 hardly guess that you were so near to San Francisco, 

 the metropolis of the Pacific States. 



The bay was once quite commodious, but now^ it is 

 so filled with mud and sand that only the smallest 

 sea-going craft can cross the bar, while at low tide 

 great patches of gray sand and brown mud lie exposed 

 to the sun. 



Most of the houses are near the low shore, but 

 some of them are perched upon the cliffs and serve a 

 good turn as lighthouses. 



A friend of mine, an old sea captain, was once sail- 

 ing down the coast in a fog. He reckoned that he 



