THE SCALLOP FISHERY. 567 



Several species were worn as pilgrim emblems in this way, but chiefly Pecten jacobes and 

 Pecten maximus. This is not the only place these lovely shells have in history and song and art; 

 for, in the days when Ossiau sang, the flat valves were the plates, the hollow ones the drinking 

 cups, of Fingal and his heroes. "Distinguished artists," says the conchologist Say, "have judged 

 them worthy of representation on their canvas, and the voluptuous form of Venus* is seen supported 

 on the waves by the valve of a Pecten * * * A beautiful species which inhabits a portion of 

 the Pacific is deified by the natives of some of the islands of that ocean." 



Ceremonial employment and significance have been found for the scallop among various savage 

 nations, and a few such instances relating to our American "Indians were mentioned by Dr. R. E. 

 C. Stearns in a paper in the Overland Monthly (April, 1873), as follows : 



" The scallops are, and have been, esteemed for food and other purposes by the aboriginal tribes 

 as well as by their civilized successors. In the shell heaps of Florida, among the Kjcekkenmced- 

 dings, or kitchen refuse, we find great numbers of these shells, especially in a heap at Cedar Kejs ; 

 and the shells of some of the west American species, found in Puget Sound, are now used by the 

 Indians in that neighborhood, for in the ethnological department of the Smithsonian Institution at 

 Washington (specimens 4773-4-5) are rattles made of valves of the Pecten hastatus, which were 

 used by the Makah Indians in the vicinity of Neeah Bay in their dances ; and another specimen is 

 a rattle made from the convex valves of a larger species (Pecten caurinus) and formerly used as a 

 medicine-rattle. These rattles are made by piercing a hole through the valves and stringing them 

 upon a willow or similar twig." 



Mr. Stearns in the same essay has furnished a most charming account of the anatomy of the 

 scallop, which I cannot do better than to quote : 



" The auimal of the fan shells is exceedingly beautiful. The mantle, or thin outer edge, which 

 is the part nearest the rim or edge of the valves, conforms to the internal fluted structure of the 

 latter, and presents the appearance of a delicately pointed ruffle or frill. This mantle is a thin 

 and almost transparent membrane, adorned with a delicate fringe of slender, thread-like processes 

 or filaments, and furnished with glands which secrete a coloring matter of the same tint as the 

 shell; the valves increase in size, in harmony with the growth of the soft parts, by the deposition, 

 around and upon the edges of membranous matter, from the fringed edge of the mantle which 

 secretes it. This cover is also adorned with a row of conspicuous round black eyes (ocelli) around 

 its base.t The lungs or gills are between the two folds of the mantle, composed of fibers pointing 

 outward, of delicate form, and free at their outer edges, so as to float loosely in the water. The 

 mouth is placed between the two inmost gills, where they unite. It is a simple orifice, destitute ot 

 teeth, but with four membranous lips on each side of the aperture. 



"The n:echanism by which respiration and nutrition are secured is elaborate and exceedingly 

 interesting. The filaments of the gill-fringe, when examined under a powerful microscope, are 

 seen to be covered with numberless minute, hair-like processes, endowed with the power of rapid 

 motion. These are called cilia, and, when the animal is alive and in situ, with the valves gaping, 

 may be seen in constant vibration in the water, generating, by their mutual action, a system of 

 currents by which the surface of the gills is laved, diverting toward the mouth animalcules and 

 other small nutritious particles. 



" The shell of the scallops consists almost exclusively, says Dr. W. B. Carpenter, of membranous 



""Scallope or Venus-code" is one among John Josselyn, gent's, "list of rarities." 



tA portion of this mantle can usually be seen, showing a finely fringed curtain of scarlet or orange, the mantle 

 itself being of a delicate fawn color, the whole set off with a number of bright, glistening eyes, of an elegant emerald 

 green, encircled with a band of turquoise blue. The finest jewels of our fairest belles can be no brighter than the 

 natural ornaments of this common mollusk. 



