358 



HISTORY OF FISHES. 



polish, and exhibit the most brilliant and va- 

 rious colouring. 



Fresh-water shells are neither so numerous, 

 so various, nor so beautiful, as those belonging 

 to the sea. They want that solidity which the 

 others have ; their clavicle, as it is called, is 

 neither so prominent nor so strong ; and not 

 having a saline substance to tinge the surface 

 of the shell, the colours are obscure. In fresh- 

 water there are but two kinds of shells, name- 

 ly, the bivalved and the turbinated. 



Living land-shells are more beautiful, 

 though not so various, as those of fresh water; 

 and some not inferior to sea-shells in beauty. 

 They are, indeed, but of one kind, namely, 

 the turbinated ; but in that there are found 

 four or five very beautiful varieties. 



Of fossil, or, as they are called, extraneous 

 shells, found in the bowels of the earth, there 

 are great numbers, and as great a variety. In 

 this class there are as many kinds as in the 

 sea itself. There are found the turbinated, 

 the bivalve, and the multivalve kinds ; and of 

 all these, many, at present, are not to be found 

 even in the ocean. Indeed, the number is so 

 great, and the varieties so many, that it was 

 long the opinion of naturalists, that they were 

 merely the capricious productions of nature, 

 and had never given retreat to animals whose 

 habitations they resembled. They were found, 

 not only of various kinds, but in different states 

 of preservation ; some had the shell entire com- 

 posed, as in its primitive state, of a white cal- 

 careous earth, and filled with earth, or even 

 empty ; others were found with the shell en- 

 tire, but filled with a substance which was 

 petrified by time ; others, and these in great 

 numbers, were found with the shell entirely 

 mouldered away, but the petrified substance 

 that filled it still exhibiting the figure of the 

 shell; others still, that had been lodged near 

 earth or stone, impressed their print upon these 

 substances^ and left the impression, though 

 they themselves were decayed: lastly, some 

 shells were found half mouldered away, their 

 parts scaling off from each other in the same 

 order in which they were originally formed. 

 However, these different stages of the shell, 

 and even their fermenting with acids, were at 

 first insufficient to convince those who had be- 

 fore assigned them a different origin. They 

 were still considered as accidentally and spor- 

 tively formed, and deposited in the various re- 

 positories where they were found, but no way 

 appertaining to any part of animated nature. 

 This put succeeding inquirers upon more mi- 



nute researches; and they soon began to find, 

 that often, where they dug up petrified shells 

 or teeth, they could discover the petrified re- 

 mains of some other bony parts of the body. 

 They found that the shells, which were taken 

 from the earth, exhibited the usual defects and 

 mischances which the same kind are known 

 to receive at sea. They showed them not only 

 tinctured with a salt-water crust, but pierced 

 in a peculiar manner by the sea- worms, that 

 make the shells of fishes their favourite food. 

 These demonstrations were sufficient, at last, 

 to convince all but a few philosophers, who 

 died away, and whose erroneous systems died 

 with them. 



Every shell, therefore, wherever it is found, 

 is now considered as the spoil of some animal, 

 that once found shelter therein. It matters 

 not by what unaccountable means they may 

 have wandered from the sea ; but they exhi- 

 bit all, and the most certain marks of their 

 origin. From their numbers and situation we 

 are led to conjecture, that the sea reached the 

 places where they are found; and from their 

 varieties we learn how little we know of all 

 the sea contains, at present ; as the earth fur. 

 nishes many kinds which our most exact and 

 industrious shell-collectors have not been able 

 to fish up from the deep. It is most probable 

 that thousands of different forms still remain 

 at the bottom unknown ; so that we may justly 

 say with the philosopher, Ea quce scimus sunt 

 pars minima eorum quce ignoramus. 



It is well, however, for mankind, that the 

 defect of our knowledge on this subject is, of 

 all parts of learning, that which may be most 

 easily dispensed with. An increase in the 

 number of shells would throw but very few 

 lights upon the history of the animals that in- 

 habit them. 1 For such information we are 



Peduncle, or pedicle a sort of stem, or hollow mem- 

 branaceous tube, on which the Anatifae are seated, pi. 

 33. fig. 87 b. 



Feelers, or tentacula are those arms by whioh the ani- 

 mals of the Balani and Anntifas secure their food, pi. 

 33. fig. 87 a. (See a description of Fossil Mollusca at 

 p. 25, Vol. I.) 



Uses and Value, of Shells. The greater part of the 

 lime used in America for agricultural and architectural 

 purposes, is made of calcined shells: the puhlic streets 

 of Christianstadt and Santa Cruz are paved with the 

 Strombus Gigas; and the town of Conchylion is entirely 

 built of marine shells. The blue and white belts of the 

 Indians of North America, as symbols of peace and 

 amity, in opposition to the war hatchet, and by 

 which the fate of nations is often decided, are made of 

 the Venus Mercenaria: and the gorget of the chieftain's 

 war-dress is formed of the Mytilus Margaritiferus. The 

 military horn of many African tribes is the Murex Tri- 

 tonis; the rare variety of which, with the volutions re- 

 versed, is held sacred, and only used by the high priests. 

 The highest order of dignity among the Friendly Islands, 

 is the permission to wear the Cypraea Auraritium, or 

 orange cowry. And Lister relates that the inhabitants of 

 the province of Nicaragua fasten the Ostrea Viiginica 

 to a handle of wood, and use it as a spade to dig up the 

 ground. As matter of traffic, they bear a nominal va- 

 lue and appreciation proportionate to their supposed scar- 

 city or beauty. Rumphius is said to have given nearly 

 a thousand pounds for one of the first discovered speci- 

 mens of the Venus Dione. The Conus Cedo nulli, so 

 very rarely offered for sale, is valued at three hundred 



