148 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



THE BAILER SHELL 



Adhering to a rock by a short stumpy stalk, sometimes 

 sealed firmly to a loose stone, you may find an object in 

 form and structure resembling an elongated, coreless pine- 

 apple, composed of a leathery semi-gelatinous, semi-trans- 

 parent substance, dirty yellow in colour. It is the spawn- 

 case or the receptacle of the ova (if that term be allowable), 

 and the cradle of what is commonly known as the bailer 

 shell (Cymbium cethiopicum} the "Ping-ah" of the blacks, 

 one of the most singular and interesting features that these 

 reefs have for the sight-seer. In its composition there may 

 be fifty, more or less cohering, conic sections, each containing 

 an unborn shell in a distinct and separate stage of develop- 

 ment. At the base, the shells are, perhaps, just emerging 

 each from its special compartment, as a young bee emerges 

 from its cell each a thin frail shell, about half an inch long, 

 white with pale yellow and light brown markings. In time, 

 should it survive all the accidents and assaults to which on 

 entering the world it is beset, the tiny shell will develop 

 into an expansively-mouthed vessel. The next succeeding 

 row will be in a less matured state, and so the development 

 diminishes towards the apex. Some of the compartments 

 are occupied by shells transparent, colourless and fragile in 

 the extreme, some by shells having merely the rudiment of 

 form, until at the apex the cells contain but a drop or so of 

 sparkling, quivering jelly. 



The bailer shell alive is like an egg, in the fact that 

 it is full of meat. Many marine shells have surprisingly 

 diminutive fleshy occupants, however great their tenacity 

 and strength. The animal inhabiting a large-sized bailer 

 weighs several pounds, the flesh being tough, leathery and 

 of unwholesome appearance. When it has decayed, the 

 shell being thin, the cavity is phenomenally capacious. 

 Large specimens contain a couple of gallons of water, and 

 as the shape is most convenient, and there is neither rust 

 nor moth to corrupt, their aptitude as effective and durable 

 bailers for boats is apparent. Some name them the boxer 



