LETTER I. 5 



5. That they arc fo caft up is certain ^ but 

 then let me tell you, that their Colours are no 

 ways bright and beautiful, till they have lain up- 

 on the Sea-fhore for fome time, to di*y and polifli 

 by the Sun's hot Rays that will foon fcorch off 

 fuch Mofs or Soil as may ftick about them for a 

 while at firft, and hinder the eye from perceiving 

 thofe exquifite (inimitable) ftrokes of Nature's 

 fineft Pencil with which they are all over a- 

 dorned. 



6. The little roimd Holes that feem as it were 

 artfully drilled thorough many of them, I take 

 to be done by either a particular fort of Fifli cal- 

 led by Dr. Woodumrd Purpura, or elfe by Sea- 

 worms (the Shells of fome of which I fent you,) 

 as foon as the Fiflies in them were dead, when 

 the Shells were undoubtedly much fofter than 

 they now ai*e, and of courfe far eafier penetrated : 

 The Scarlet Spots that are fo lively upon two cm: 

 three of them, I fuppofe to be a fort of Minium 

 or red glutinous Earth which they contrad:ed in 

 the Sea, and which by length of time hardened 

 into much the fame mattei: with the Shells : thefe 

 are not the Barnacle fort of Sea- worms. 



7. You will find in my Colledion at leaft a 

 dozen Shells that are brown on the outfide and 

 of a palifli green on the infide, called Patella: 

 they rife gradually from an oval bafe in fhape 

 of a Pyramid, having generally fpeaking a little 



A 3 oblonj 



