THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



41 



cliurches to contain the consecrated water. But those 

 which we see are far from giving its an idea of the animal. 

 The great Tridacn^e, which are only detached from the rocks 

 by cutting their cable with an axe, sometimes weigh more 

 than five hundred pounds. In the archipelago of the 

 Molucca Islands these conchological giants are not rare. 

 The natives eat them like our oysters, to which they are 



22. Gigantic Tridacna, used in the Jloluccas as a Bathing-tub. 



analogous, and the flesh of one is a sufficient meal for 

 twenty people. Their thick valves, which are sometimes 

 five feet long, serve as regular calcareous troughs for the 

 inhabitants, which nature offers them ready cut and pol- 

 ished, and which, according to Peron, they often use for 

 feeding pigs and other animals. At other times they 

 convert them into baths for their children. 



