OYSTERS AND SMALL CLAMS 49 
by numerous lines of growth. It is worth look- 
ing for. 
The members of the genus 
Astarte have thick shells 
eovered with dark, heavy 
epidermis. Astarte, by the 
way, was the Syrian Venus, 
so we have another mythical 
name added to the many 
Fig. 31 (+) which have gone before. As 
Venus was supposed to represent beauty, so the 
beautiful shells are appropriately given her vari- 
ous names. Figure 31 represents Astarte alask- 
éensis, Dall, the Alaska Astarte. The figure is 
about natural size, and very plainly shows the 
pecularities of the shell. The epidermis, or peri- 
ostracum, is very dark, and becomes black in old 
shells, while the shell itself is white. This species 
lives in Bering Sea, and has been found as far 
south as Puget Sound. 
Astarte polaris, Dall, 
the Polar Astarte, is 
shown in Figure 32, 
which is somewhat en- 
larged. The shell is 
more delicate than the 
last, with finer and 
more numerous ridges, 
and it has a_ polished, 
light brown epidermis. 
It comes from Alaska, near the Shumagin Islands, 
also from Baffin’s Bay on the Greenland Coast. 
Fig. 32, x $ (*) 
