XX. 



THE ABALONE AND ITS UTILITY. 



T>ROBABLY of all the "shell-fish" of the Union, after the oysters, 

 •A- clams, and the scallop, none holds a more important place commer- 

 cially than the ear-shells, or abalones; and if edible properties are not 

 made the scale of judgment, then they hold the first place. The ear- 

 shells belong to the conchological genus Haliotis, and there are nearly a 

 hundred species of them scattered about the world, our own Atlantic 

 shore being almost the only coast where the haliotis is not represented. 

 In many countries the flesh of this animal is eaten, and everywhere its 

 shell is highly valued. 



In Europe one of the localities most populous in haliotis is the Chan- 

 nel Islands, where they are called " ormer shells," said to be a corruption 

 of the French oreille de mer / perhaps the popular name seen in the books 

 of old English writers, " Norman shell," is equally a transformation from 

 the French. Jeffreys says that the Cherbourg fishwomen call them "six 

 yeux " (six eyes), from an idea that the orifices in the shell are real eyelets 

 or peep-holes. " Venus's ear" and "sea-ear" are names derived from the 

 form of the shell, which is copied in the Greek technical name tiXuLtiq. 



" The people of Guernsey and Jersey," says Simmonds, in his Com- 

 mercial Products of the Sea, "ornament their houses with the shells of the 

 ormer, disposing them frequently in quincunx order, and placing them so 

 that their bright interiors may catch the rays of the sun." Could any 

 decoration or frescoing be prettier, albeit somewhat grotesque ? Not con- 

 tent with this, the farmers hang bunches of them on top of poles in their 

 grain-fields to dangle about and shoot lances of reflected light from their 

 scintillating surfaces at timid but thieving birds. 



In southern California the gathering of haliotis affords employment 

 to a large number of persons, and a considerable commerce has sprung 

 up.. There the mollusk is called "abalone" — a word of doubtful Spanish- 

 Indian derivation, apparently having reference to the beads which Indians 

 were wont to fabricate from this shell. The business is chiefly in the 



