CHAPTER X. 



Our Return to the Ocean — The Haliotis-IvOvers — The 

 Little Risso Shells — Isapis, Lacuna, Etc. — How to 

 Study Minute Shells — The Shells Upon the Rocks 

 — The Three Littorines — The River Shell of Ore- 

 gon — Its Relatives in California. 



A WAY from the ponds and rivers, and back to the 

 /jL ocean's rocky shore we must now hasten, and take 

 out our magnifying glasses once more ; for we are now 

 to look for some of the smallest shells that are to be 

 found anywhere. 



Perhaps w^e shall be fortunate enough to find a big 

 Abalone or Haliotis, as we ought to call it. It has a 

 broad, flat shell, larger than your hand, and on the 

 back of this shell are growing tufts of coralline, sea- 

 weed, and fringes of moss. Now we will search 

 more carefully, and in the little crevices of the shell 

 and among the bits of seaweed we may find a colony 

 of little mollusks, having simple, conical shells, about 

 one-eighth of an inch in length. They are quite 

 slender, of a brownish color, few-w^iorled, and have 

 only a small aperture. Following Dr. Carpenter, to 

 whom we owe so much for his investigations on the 

 shells of this coast, we will call this little mollusk 

 that seems to love the Haliotis, Bm'leeia haliotiphila^ 

 Cpr., Bar-lee'-ya hal-i-o-tif-i-la. 



