A NATURE WOOING. 



seems a most prosperous voyage. Before nightfall 

 the waves of adversity beat about us and we are lost; 

 wrecked on some unthought of unheard of shore. 

 The roar and surge of the incoming tide are alone 

 borne to my ear a dull, monotonous sound in the 

 calm of midday. My companion stops to gather a 

 few quarts of living "coquina clams," Donax varicu- 

 bilis Say. At low tide they are found in numbers but 

 an inch or two below the surface of the sand. He 

 puts them into a perforated iron basin and, by,shak- 

 ing them to and fro in the pools of water, cleanses 

 them of sand. They are used extensively for mak- 

 ing soup, being boiled, shells and all, the liquid then 

 separated by straining. Here and there a sea snail, 

 Polinices duplicate Say, has thrown up a mole-like 

 burrow of sand a yard 

 or two in length. By 

 a kick of the foot it is 

 easily dislodged from 

 the end of its burrow. 

 This mollusk is very 

 common along this por- 

 tion of the Atlantic 

 coast. The empty 

 shells of it and other 

 species are often inhabited by the hermit crab, 

 Eupagurnus bernhardus Desm., and its allies. As 

 the crabs increase in size they exchange the smaller 

 shells for larger ones. 



Fig. 10 Hermit Crab in shell of Sea 

 Snail. 



