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This fanciful mode of accounting for the origin of music is thus curiously 

 alluded to in Brewer's Linguae. 



The lute was first devised 

 In imitation of a Tortoise back, 

 Whose sinews, parched by Apollo's beams, 

 Echoed about the concave of the shell ; 

 And seeing the shortest and smallest gave shrillest sound 

 They found out frets, where sweet diversity, 

 Well touched by the skilful learned fingers, 

 Roused so strange a multitude of chords. 

 And the opinion many do confirm 

 Because Testado signifies a Lute. 



Shells as one of the agents of decomposition, and gradual dissolution, will 

 afford material assistance to the geologist, when he examines into their rapid 

 and astonishing powers of perforating and disuniting rocks of calcarious sand- 

 stone, limestone, marble, and even the hardest masses of granite and porphyry, 

 wherever they come in contact with the ocean, and by a comparative exami- 

 nation of the different stratifications of marine testaceous depositions he may 

 eventually be led to some important conclusions as to the probable elevation 

 of the waters of the general Deluge. 



From what has been adduced, it must now be obvious to the reader that 

 shells are of considerable importance in the arts of life ; but the animals con- 

 tained in these Shells are of far greater value. As articles of food shell-fish 

 are extensively employed by the poor, and even hold a conspicuous place 

 at the tables of the rich. In many places, they in a great measure support 

 the children of a maritime population, and in the Western and Northern Is- 

 lands of Scotland, have in years of scarcity prevented the death of thousands, 

 besides affording employment to as many who are constantly engaged in search- 

 ing for shell-fish, and bringing them to market. Independently of the food 

 thus obtained from Testaceous bodies, they afford that treasure of a Shell 

 the Pearl, one of the most beautiful and costly ornaments, equally prized by 

 the savage and the citizen ; And supply us also with a dye — the famous 

 Tyrian purple of antiquity, which constituted an attribute of imperial gran- 

 deur. Thus we perceive that the study of Conchology rises in importance as 

 we discover its usefulness. 



Conchology or Testaceology, as it is now sometimes called, comprises the 

 Molusca Testacea, or self-bodied animals furnished with shells, being the third 



