SHELLS AND MOLLUSCOUS ANIMALS. 197 



perform some superstitious vow, or, perhaps, with 

 the view of making merchandise. This pilgrim 

 shell, affixed to the front of the hat, is frequently 

 adverted to by our older writers. Thus we have 

 Ophelia' s song : 



" How should I your true love know 



From another one ? 

 By his cockle-hat and staff, 

 And hy his sandal shoon." 



And in that quaint old poem of Sir Walter 

 Raleigh's, entitled " The Pilgrimage," beautiful, 

 but fanciful, we have an allusion to this : 



" Give me my scallop-shell of quiet, 

 My staffe of faith to walk upon ; 

 My scrip of joy (immortal diet) , 

 My bottle of salvation ; 

 My gowne of glory, hope's true gage, 

 And thus I'll make my pilgrimage. 

 Blood shall he my body's balmer, 

 While my soul, like a peaceful palmer, 

 Travels towards the land of Heaven." 



After a stormy day, when more shells than usual 

 have been dashed by the waves on the strand, we 

 may often pick up some of the different species 

 of Anomia, or silver oysters, as they are called by 

 people on the Kentish coast. This shell has one 

 valve flat, and the other gibbous, and one of the 

 valves has often a small hole just at the base. 

 These shells are so transparent and wrinkled, that 

 if we found only one valve, we might almost 

 imagine it was the pearly lining of an oyster-shell, 

 detached from its place. The waved anomia is 

 about one inch and a half wide, marked with fine 

 irregular thread-like lines crossing curved ones, 

 and it is inside of a beautiful pearly green colour. 

 In some parts of France its fish is esteemed a 



