PREFACE. 



The fifth of the Series of First Books of Natural History, em- 

 braces that branch of our subject which treats of the Mollusca, 

 or soft animals, and, consequently, includes the Elements of Con- 

 chology. 



In the beauty and singularity of their forms, the variety and 

 brilliancy of their colours, shells only yield to flowers. The 

 admiration of these deserted habitations of a very numerous class 

 of animals is very general, if not universal ; scarcely a house, at 

 least in sea-port towns, is without a few shells, and in many there 

 are large collections of them. Comparatively, few persons, how- 

 ever, view them in connection with animal existence for the 

 mass, they are merely beautiful things from the seas and rivers, 

 far and near. We care little how they grow, how they live, how 

 they breathe, upon what they feed, or for what use they were 

 created. Who stops to think an oyster has a heart and blood- 

 vessels, a breathing apparatus, a nervous system, or digestive 

 organs ? How very few are aware that certain snails possess 

 eyes and lay eggs ; nor is it universally known that we are in- 

 debted to the organization of soft animals for mother-of-pearl and 

 pearls ! 



Limited as this little volume is, it may prove a key to stores 

 of information, even more interesting to many than the numerous 

 fictions of the day. " Truth is stranger than fiction," has been 

 often said ; and the beautiful truths brought to us by a study of 

 animal life, in its various forms, are certainly more admirable and 

 wonderful than any fiction of man's creation. 



Is there any thing produced by the Bulwers or the James' of 

 the day, more worthy of admiration than the habits of a snail, 

 or the movements of a cockle-shell? When at the Sandwich 

 Islands, in 1836, we heard an anecdote which has an application 

 here. The officers of a British ship of war manifested a strong 

 desire to obtain " curiosities :" a young Kanaka, with a view to 



