MY A. 57 



Bay, 52° 10' N. (Drexler') ; Greenland (Moll.) ; Drontlioim to Cape 

 North (M- Andrew). Abundant as a pleistocene fossil throughout 

 the North. 



It seems not to be a common shell at the British Islands, and 

 to be seldom used as food there. 



Its surface is often colored by the earth in which it is found. 

 Very often it has a rusty color, or a bluish clay-color ; and the so- 

 lidity of the shell varies according to its exposure to the chafing 

 of the sea. Some specimens obtained in the still, sandy harbor 

 of Provincetown are very white, and nearly as thin as paper. 



In the young shell the valves are quite unequal, and the tooth 

 is produced towards the longer side, so as to be somewhat trian- 

 gular. I have compared shells in this state, a third of an inch in 

 length, with specimens of Sphenia Sivai/isoni, Turt., and can find 

 no differences in the hinge, and none in the shell, unless that per- 

 haps the latter may be a little thinner, and proportionally longer 

 than the former. \_S. Swaiiisoni is regarded by British writers as 

 the fry of 31. truncata. 



Note. — The clam has found its pUice in our literature, and the following scraps may 

 not be inappropriate here. 



" The Indians were very fond of clams, which they called siclcishuog. This is a word 

 with a plural termination. If the author might be allowed to revive an old term, he would 

 denominate the common or small clam the sicki." — Historj of Orleans, in Coll. Mass. 

 Hist. Soc. viii. 193 (1802). 



" And is there a mind for a delicate dish ? 

 We repair to the clam-banks and there we catch fish." 



Forefathers' Son;/, ahout 1630. 



" Clams — white. Their broth is most excellent in all intermitting fevers, consumption, 

 etc. These clams feed only on sand." — JoJui Winthrop, in .Journal of the Roi/nl Sac. 1G34. 



" The times wherein old Pompion was a saint, 

 When men fared hardly, yet without complaint, 

 On vilest cates ; the dainty Indian maize 

 Was eat with clamp-shells, out of wooden trays " 



B. Thompson, N^eiu England's Crisis, 1675. 



"SONNET TO A CLAM. 



" ' Dum tacent clamant.' 



" Inglorious friend ! most confident I am 

 Thy life is one of very little ease ; 

 Albeit men mock thee with their similes, 

 And prate of being ' happy as a clam ' ! 

 What though thy shell protects thy fragile head 

 From the sharp bailitfs of the briny sea ? 

 Thy valves are sure no safety -valves to thee, 



