THE USE OF SHELLS. 31 T 



races. The custom of using shells as necklaces is common 

 not only among savages, but among civilized people at the 

 present day. Nacreous or pearl-like shells are employed for 

 making buttons and other articles ; colored and pearl ones 

 form the ornaments of papier-mach6 work, card-cases, etc. 

 Various small shells are made into flowers and decorations 

 for head-dresses; very beautiful cameos are carved upon 

 some description of shells for brooches, bracelets, ear-rings,, 

 and other attractive objects. The Fountain-shell of the West 

 Indies is one of the largest known univalve shells, weighing 

 sometimes four or five pounds. Immense quantities are im- 

 ported from the Bahamas for the manufacture of cameos.. 

 The secret of cameo-cutting consists simply in knowing that 

 the inner stratum of porcellanous shells is differently colored 

 from the exterior. Some shells are manufactured into- 

 spoons, handles for knives, cups, lamps, etc. The purest 

 kind of lime is made from calcined shells, and their use as a 

 manure has already been mentioned. 



Mother-of-pearl is the beautiful white enamel, or pearly 

 lining, which forms the greater part of most oyster-shells, 

 but especially the larger ones found in the seas of the Pacific 

 and Indian Oceans. 



In the cathedral and some of the churches in Panama the 

 upper portions are studded with pearl shells, which give- 

 them a strange and not unpleasing appearance. 



It has been stated that in many of the houses in the capi- 

 tal, the outer side of the verandah or corridor is composed 

 of coarse and dark-colored mother-of-pearl shells, of little 

 value, set in a wooden framework of small squares, forming^ 

 w^indows, which move on slides. Although the light ad- 

 mitted through this sort of window is much inferior to what 

 glass would give, it has the advantage of being strong. 



The use of spiral shells as trumpets or horns is traced 

 back to the Romans, and they are thus employed by the 

 Africans, the natives of the Eastern Archipelago and New 



