MARINE UNIVALVES 163 
long rubber boots. Now I was ready for work, 
and taking up my hoe I began to dig in the sand. 
There was plenty of sand to dig in, in fact, too 
much of it, for it apparently took up all the room 
and left no place for the 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 sur- 
face, I saw something which would 
have made me dance for joy, had I 
not been weighted down by the long 
boots. For there in very truth was a 
live Olive, with its graceful shell 
shaped like Figure 151, and a beauti- 
Fig.151,x3 ful, pearl-colored body, which it 
quickly withdrew 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 little creature, and mused some- 
what as follows: The name of this mollusk is 
Olivella biplicata, Sby., the Purple Olive-shell. It 
is about an inch long, and the shell, while appar- 
ently smooth and polished, is shown under the 
microscope to have very fine and beautiful reticu- 
lations. The spire is short, the aperture long and 
narrow, the canal a mere notch, and the outer lip 
is thin-edged. Upon the inner wall of the aper- 
ture is a lump of white enamel, and at the base 
of the columella are two little folds, which are 
referred to in the name biplicata, meaning twice 
folded. The color of the shell varies much in dif- 
ferent specimens; some are almost pure white, 
others are very dark, but most of them are dove- 
