THE BREAKERS. SHELLS AND SHELL-WORK. 65 
meditate upon the question of its desirableness as a summer resi- 
dence, with a cyclone outside traveling at the rate of one hundred 
miles an hour. For we well knew that at times, not only 
‘“¢The startled waves leap over it; the storm 
Smites it with all the scourges of the rain, 
But steadily against its solid form 
Press the great shoulders of the hurricane.” 
As we saw it on that occasion, we realized more than ever be- 
fore its great importance, and the beneficence of its mission. 
We seemed to hear its hopeful and inspiring voice above the roar 
of the angry breakers. 
‘¢ (Sail on!’ it said, ‘sail on, ye stately ships,’ 
And with your floating bridge the ocean span, 
Be mine to guard this light from all eclipse, 
Be yours to bring man nearer unto man!” 
The Bahamas offer special attractions to the conchologist. 
Their waters abound with a great variety of handsome shell-fish, 
and the shells, profusely scattered along the shores of the islands 
and keys, as the tides ebb, are exquisitely beautiful in form and 
color. They are mostly small, and so delicate and varied that 
with them the natives have long been accustomed to make vari- 
ous articles for the adornment of persons and parlors. They 
display much ingenuity and taste, and are said to be, if not su- 
perior, at least unsurpassed in this department of industrial 
esthetics. Some of the products of their skill, as well as shells 
that have been simply gathered from the beach and cured, are 
most always to be found for sale in the court of the hotel. Also 
delicate ornaments ingeniously made from the small scales of 
fish. 
In this connection, the conchs deserve special notice, as in the 
