CHAPTER V: THE RAZOR SHELLS. RAZOR CLAMS 



Family Solenid/^ 



Shells elongated, open at ends; hinge terminal; ligament 

 external; hinge teeth, two or three, compressed, posterior one 

 forked; surface smooth, primatic. Animal with powerful cylin- 

 drical foot; siphons short and united, or longer and separated at 

 ends, gills narrow, extending into branchial siphon. 



A family of agile bivalves which live buried vertically in 

 sand. 



Genus SOLEN, Linn. 



Shell long, narrow, straight, with parallel margins; foot short, 

 blunt; hinge teeth, one in each valve; mantle closed, except in 

 front, forms siphonal sheath. World-wide genus, except in cold 

 seas. Thirty-seven living species, forty fossil. Low water to 

 one hundred fathoms. 



The celerity with which these mollusks burrow to a level 

 of safety in the sand is astonishing. Tread softly if you would 

 find one at the mouth of his hole taking in fresh oxygen at low 

 tide. Careless footsteps give the alarm. A jet of water flies up 

 as the siphons are drawn in. The foot flies out, thin as a knife 

 blade, cutting through the sand in a slanting downward course. 

 Contracting this, a bulb is formed at the tip, which anchors it 

 while the contraction pulls the shell down. The thrust and pull 

 are repeated, and before you have begun to dig in the sand to 

 discover him, the razor is safe with two feet of sand above him. 

 The muscular strength of this moUusk is far greater, in proportion 

 to size, than a man's. 



English fishermen sprinkle salt on the mouth of the burrow 

 of this clam, causing it to rise and spout to expel the irritant. 

 It is popularly supposed that the razors hail it as a sign of the 

 incoming tide — an unreasonable theory. Oil spread on the sand 



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