THE IMPERIAL HARP-SHELL AND THE MAGILUS. 597 



and emptying it into a tub. Sometimes the Whelk is captured by the 

 dredge, but the baited basket is the quickest and surest method. Be- 

 sides its use as an article of human consumption, it is sometimes em- 

 ployed by the fishermen as bait for their hooks. 



The reader will doubtless have observed on the seashore considerable 

 masses of little yellowish capsules, mostly empty, and so light as to be 

 drifted on the surface of the sea like so many masses of corks. These 

 are the empty egg-cases of the Whelk. At the proper season of the 

 year, when the unhatched egg-clusters are flung on the shores bv the 

 gales, the little Whelks can be discovered within the capsules, several 

 shells being found in each case. Later in the season the egg-capsules 

 will be seen to be split open at one end, so as to allow the young to 

 escape. 



When hatched the young escape into the sea through a round hole 

 in the capsule. 



The sweeping curv^es, broad swelling lip, and regular ridges of the 

 next genus of shells have earned for them the popular title by which 

 they are known. 



About nine or ten species belong to this pretty genus, some of which 

 are rare and costly. The Imperial Harp-shell, which is represented 

 in the engraving on this page, is still a 

 valuable shell, but in former days, when 

 the facilities of commerce were far less 

 than at present, it could be purchased 

 only at a most extravagant rate. 



The Harp-shells are found only in the 

 hottest seas, and are taken mostly on the 

 shores of the Mauritius, Ceylon, and the 

 Philippine Islands. They frequent the 

 softer and more muddy parts of the coast, 

 and prefer deep to shallow water. None 

 of the Harp-shells possess the operculum. 



The color of the Imperial Harp-shell is 

 pale chestnut and white, with a dash of 

 yellow, arranged in tolerably regular and Imperial Hakp-shell 

 slightly spiral bands. (^'"'^^ imperialis). ^ 



One of the strangest, though not the most beautiful, of shells is th'e 

 Magilus, a native of the Red Sea and the Mauritius. 



For the purpose, apparently, of carrying out some mysterious object, 

 the Magilus resides wholly in masses of madrepore, and in its early 

 youth is a thin, delicate shell without anything remarkable about it 

 As it advances in age it enlarges in size, as is the case with most crea- 

 tures, but its growth is confined to one direction, and instead of enlarg- 

 ing in diameter it merely increases in length. The cause of the 



