66 _ IsLEs OF SUMMER. 
past they furnished to the natives a most important article of 
diet, while the conch shells have been in demand in other coun- 
tries for their beauty, and have also to a considerable extent, 
been utilized in the manufacture of various articles of personal 
adornment. The conch also often secretes a pearl of considerable 
value. The exportation of conch shells for five years, from 1856 
to 1860 inclusive, aggregated $75,230, and for the next four 
years, (during the war of the rebellion), only $15,445. In the 
Governor’s report for 1878 no mention is made of this item of 
trade, and I infer the value of conchs exported that year must 
have been very small. The conch is obtained by diving, and 
sometimes has been found in very extensive beds. This may be 
inferred from a passage on page 204 of McKinnen’s Tour, A. D. 
1803, in which he says—that the day after they passed Exuma, 
they ‘‘steered towards a passage named Conch Cut, from a pro- 
digious quantity of conch shells which have been rolled from the 
[Great Bahama] bank or adjoining shores, and thrown together 
near this narrow pass.” At the time of the American revolution 
of 1776, the Bahama people relied far more upon the water than 
the land for their support. Its fruitage of fish and wrecks never 
failed. They had no more occasion than the birds to sow and 
reap. At that time they acquired the sobriquet of Conchs. 
A writer from the Bahamas in 1824, states that many persons 
of the highest respectability were then distinguished by that 
name, and that they appeared to be not very proud of it,—which 
is not to be wondered at, as one might be expected to be equally 
pleased to be called an oyster or aclam. The wreckers of Key 
West, Fla., whose ancestors came from the Bahamas, are,we are 
informed by an old sea captain, to this day also called conchs. 
The surfaces of the inner spiral convolutions of the shell of the 
conch are highly polished, and have a most beautiful pink color, 
which suggested to our mind the inquiry whether the living oc- 
