10 NATURAL HISTORY OF OUR SHORES 



and felspathic sand being here and there marked with 

 patches, some nearly white, others almost black, the result 

 of materials of different specific gravities having been now 

 borne up, now deposited, by currents of air or water, chiefly 

 by the latter. 



The dark patches we can dismiss with a short shrift. 

 They are smudges on Nature's fair face made by the hand 

 of man fine cinder washed in from afar, where some 

 steamer has cast overboard the contents of its ash-pit (unless 

 we are on a shore where titanic iron sand occurs). 



The white patches are the object of our quest. A pinch 

 of their constituents examined with a good pocket lens 

 reveals the fact that they are chiefly composed of shells 

 shells so minute that an ounce by weight will contain 

 some millions of them ; and not only are they interesting, 

 for a history attaches to them, but they are things of most 

 exquisite beauty. 



The Plate No. 1 will give an idea of what some of them 

 are like. Among them are miniatures of ancient " Lach- 

 rymal vases," soda-water bottles, and cut-glass decanters. 

 Some are like fossil ammonites, others like the productions 

 of some very artistically inclined confectioner. They are 

 in endless variety, and all are girded with beauty. Fig. 2 

 shows a photograph from nature of few forms. 



But these are only the dead shells ; the living members 

 of the tribe are farther afield some are out on the ocean, 

 many at its surface, others thousands of fathoms down. 

 There are many in the mud and in the rock pools close at 

 hand. But meanwhile let us collect some of these dead 

 ones. 



There are several methods of attaining this end. The 

 best one, I find, is to lay a piece of paper say a newspaper 

 close to a white patch, and then, with something that will 

 create a stifnsh current of air a lady's fan would be the 

 thing, par excellence, if such could be obtained waft the 



