THE SNAIL S GAY RELATIONS. 



12. THE SNAILS GAY RELATIONS. 



I HAVE seen 



A curious child who dwelt upon a tract 

 Of inland ground, applying to his ear 

 The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell ; 

 To which, in silence hushed, his very soul 

 Listened intensely ; for from within were heard 

 Murmurings, whereby the monitor expressed 

 Mysterious union with its native sea. 



Wordsworth. 



VERY likely the child whom Wordsworth saw had in 

 his hand one of those shells which are called porcelain 

 shells, or cowries. I remember well the first time I 

 placed one to my ear. I really thought, as the shell 

 had come from the ocean, it had brought with it a little 

 of the ocean roar confined in its convolutions or whorls. 

 It destroys this little bubble of romance, to find that 

 the hand bent into a cup and held to the ear produces 

 nearly the same effect. 



The cowry animal is essentially like the snail. The 

 cowry shell is quite different from the snail shell in 

 shape and appearance. It is almost precisely like a 

 coffee berry. It is without the spire of the cone, and 

 has only the body whorl, with an opening running its 

 whole length, thus forming its mouth. Like most of the 

 ornamental shell animals, the cowry has more of a foot 

 than its sober little cousin the snail has ; and attached 

 to this foot is a trap-door which closes the mouth of 

 the shell, when the mollusk retires into it. 



Exquisitely beautiful are these cowries, covered with 

 dark spots, and equal in finish to the finest porcelain. 



