66 ISLES OF SUMMER. 



past they furnished to the natives a most important article of 

 diet, while the conch shells have been in demand in other coun- 

 tries for their beauty, and have also to a considerable extent, 

 been utilized m the manufacture of various articles of personal 

 adornment. The conch ako often secretes a pearl of considerable 

 value. The exportation of conch shells for five years, from 1856 

 to 1800 inclusive, aggregated $T5,230, and for the next four 

 years, (during the war of the rebellion), only 115,445. In the 

 Governor's report for 1878 no mention is made of this item of 

 trade, and I infer the value of conclis exported that year must 

 have been very small. The conch is obtained by diving, and 

 sometimes has been found in very extensive beds. This may be 

 inferred from a passage on page 204 of McKinnen's Tour, A. D. 

 1803, in which he says — that the day after they jjassed Exuma, 

 they "steered towards a passage named Conch Cut, from a pro- 

 digious quantity of conch shells Avhicli have been rolled from the 

 [Great Bahama] bank or adjoining shores, and thrown together 

 near this narrow pass." At the time of the American revolution 

 jf 1770, the Bahama people relied far more upon the water than 

 the land for their support. Its fruitage of fish and wrecks never 

 failed. They had no more occasion than the birds to sow and 

 reap. At tlrat time they acquired the sobriquet of Conchs. 

 A writer from t*lie Bahamas in 1824, states- that many persons 

 of the highest respectability were then distinguished by that 

 name, and that they appeared to be not very proud of it, — whicli 

 is not to be wondered at, as one might be expected to be equally 

 pleased to be called an oyster or a clam. The wreckers of Key 

 West, Fla., whose ancestors came from the Bahamas, are,weare 

 informed by an old sea captain, to this day also called conchs. 

 The surfaces of the inner spiral convolutions of the shell of the 

 conch are highly polished, and have a most beautiful pink color, 

 which suggested to our mind the inquiry whether the living oc- 



