TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 297 



" I know them well enough," said old Lucas. " I 

 have eaten them when I was in India." 



"Well?" 



"Well, it is detestable. But there is one thing 

 about them that you probably do not know ; it is that 

 in China they make use of these shells, which we use 

 here as holy-water basins, as troughs for horses. 

 Indeed, I knew an old quartermaster who declared 

 he had seen them so large that they were used as baths 

 by the mandarins. You can't believe some quarter- 

 masters ! " 



They were entering the bay of the Seine. In the 

 north the sky was becoming blacker and blacker, 

 while, by a curious optical effect, to the south the 

 houses of Trouville and all the details of the coast of 

 Calvados were denned with remarkable clearness. 

 Some flocks of sea-gulls appeared as white patches 

 against the black sky, and made with all possible 

 rapidity for the coast. 



" We must make for Trouville as quickly as pos- 

 sible," said the captain of the Albatross ; " there will 

 be a pretty good hatful of wind to night." 



He gave a stroke of the tiller, and noticing on the 

 larboard side of the vessel the buoys of Amfard, which 

 were bobbing about on the waves, he lifted his woollen 

 bonnet by way of saluting them. 



This gesture did not escape the three voyagers, and 

 in response to the unspoken request of their eyes he 



