MOLLUSCS. 93 



To the Indians the quahog was very important, for it furnished their 

 black wampum, and wampum was a necessity with them. Wampum 

 was bits of shell dressed to a circular outline, perforated and strung on 

 cords. Some of the wampum belts were very large, containing thousands 

 of beads. Wampum passed as money, but more important was the part 

 it played in sealing contracts and confirming treaties. In a council one 

 party would give the other a wampum belt for each article of the treaty, 

 explaining as he did so exactly what its meaning was ; and the tribes each 

 had an officer whose duty was to keep these wampum belts and to remem- 

 ber the signification of each. Wampum was of two colors, white and 

 black, the latter being twice as valuable as the other. The white was 

 obtained from various shells ; the black, almost exclusively from quahogs. 



The long-clam (Mya armaria) is a native of both continents, being 

 especially abundant in the northern waters, and in favorable localities the 

 whole surface of the sand-flats will be filled with their holes. In edible 

 qualities the long-clam stands next to the oyster among shell-fish, and it is 

 estimated, though the estimate is a mere guess, that the annual amount of 

 clams dug is about two million bushels. In personal appearance the clam 

 is far from beautiful : it has a coarse, dirty white shell, which is never 

 large enough to cover the entire body, but from this portion protrudes a 

 bit of dirty brown skin, from another the black ' head,' the whole being 

 strikingly suggestive of a schoolboy who has outgrown his clothes. We 

 have already described the way that this species lives buried in the sand ; 

 as it grows it enlarges and deepens its hole, which it can never leave, — 

 it is a prisoner for life. Before taking leave of this species it may be well 

 to remark that the so-called ' head ' of the clam is in reality the siphon ; 

 acephals, be it remembered, are headless. 



The common name razor-clam is highly appropriate for the long and 

 slender shells which in shape, and frequently in color, resemble a closed 

 razor. In science they parade as Solen and Ensis. They are not so abun- 

 dant as the long-clam, and then, besides, they are not so easily obtained ; 

 these two facts explain why they are used so little as food. A clam-digger 

 in digging the common clam has an easy task ; he knows that just so far 

 down are the clams, and they cannot run away. But with the razor-clam 

 there is no such certainty. The common clam lives constantly at the 

 bottom of his burrow., extending his long siphon to the surface for food 

 and water ; but the razor-fish has no such conveniences. He has to climb 

 to the mouth of his hole for his daily food, and he has to dart to its depths 

 for protection from clanger, — and he makes these passages in pretty quick 

 time for a mollusc. In digging them one has to be quick, for the clams 

 are very alert, and have their senses well developed. On the slightest 



