222 HABITS AND HABITAT OP HALIOTIS. 



hands of Chinese, and that it should be so is very natural. At home the 

 Chinese were, and yet are, accustomed to dry the flesh of their own hali- 

 otis (which is abundant from Malaya to Kamtchatka) as a food luxury. 

 Finding in California practically the same mollusk, they at once began 

 to gather the abalones for the sake of the meat, the surplusage of which 

 they dried in salt, and shipped home to China at a good profit. After 

 a time white men began to pick up the shells thrown away, and to work 

 them over into ornaments and objects of jewellery. Thus apprised of 

 their value, the Chinamen also saved all the shells they got, and soon 

 found this half of the catch brought more money than the dried flesh. 

 For three or four years past the business in these shells has been exten- 

 sive, but fears are felt that the mollusks may soon become exterminated. 



The abalone producing region extends from San Francisco to Lower 

 California, San Diego being the principal depot outside of the capital, 

 receiving stock largely from Mexican waters. For a long time Mexico 

 paid no attention to this trespass upon her shores, but now she charges 

 a license duty upon every abalone boat from the United States. • 



Abalones thrive best among rocky, weed-grown crags or reefs alter- 

 nately exposed and submerged with every tide, and in a warm climate. 

 They are not carnivorous, but subsist upon the sea vegetables, of which 

 there is always an abundance in such places. Their fleshy base, or " foot," 

 upon which the convex, ear-shaped shell is carried, concealing and pro- 

 tecting the vital organs, is " very large, rounded at the ends, and fringed 

 with thread-like tentaculse, which, when the animal is protruded from the 

 shell below the surface of the water, are gently swayed." 



They move very little, and with great moderation of gait. The broad 

 muscular foot is adapted less to locomotion than for adhesion, and so 

 strong is the force with which they cling to the rock — withdrawing their 

 protracted lobes, and squatting flat down at the least disturbance — that 

 often it is exceedingly difficult to detach them, even with the aid of the 

 trowel or spade which is usually carried by the fishermen. Another 

 method is to pour over them a small quantity of warm water, and then 

 give a sharp push sideways with the foot. The warm douche surprises 

 and disgusts them into relaxation. 



There is a grisly yarn (now of respectable antiquity) about a poor 

 Chinaman who discovered a large abalone left bare by the tide, and partly 

 exposing its mantle-lobes beneath the edge of its shell. The man had no 

 spade or hot water with him, but attempted to tear the mollusk up with 

 his bare hands. No sooner did the abalone feel his touch than it shut 

 down, pinching the Celestial's fingers between its shell and the rock so 



