114 CONCHOLOGIST’S COMPANION. 
deposits within your reach. I cannot share with 
you these pleasing labours, but mind can gravitate 
to mind, through intervening seas and mountains. 
Listen then to me, and while you fancy that I am 
walking by your side, let me tell you something of 
the numerous family of Univalve. The shells of 
this division are in general extremely beautiful, with 
names indicative of their origin or shape. Thus the 
generic appellation of the Conus, signifies a cone; 
its shells are remarkably elegant, and singularly 
varied, and some of the rarer species are valued 
at twenty guineas. The genus Cyprea, was early 
dedicated to the fabulous divinity of Cyprus. It 
admits of six divisions, of which the C. moneta is 
collected by negro women of the Indian islands, three 
days before and after the full of the moon, and thence 
transported into Bengal, Siam, and Africa, where 
it is used by the natives as a substitute for money. 
Vast quantities are imported into this country, for 
the purpose of traffic; and at least one hundred 
tons of them are annually sent to Guinea.* 
* The following cbservations are extracted from the Catechism 
of Conchology. They refer toa custom which, although foreign 
to the subject of this letter, the author is anxious to notice with 
decided reprobation. 
“‘ One thing, my young friend, I would forcibly impress upon 
your mind: let nothing induce you to adopt the savage, the 
barbarous custom of putting live shell-fish into cold water, and 
