THE INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER. 



APRIL, 18 6 



ECONOMIC USES OF SHELLS, AND THEIR INHABI- 

 TANTS.* 



(With a Tinted Plate.) 



BY HENRY WOODWARD, F.G.S., F.Z.S., 



Of the British Museum. 



In the two former articles which, appeared in the Intellectual 

 Observer (vol. x., No. iv., November, 1866, pp. 241 — 253, and 

 vol. xi., No. i., February, 1867, pp. 18 — 30,) I gave some 

 account of the "Form, Growth, and Construction of Shells/' 

 with illustrations of the most remarkable diversities which the 

 mollusca present. I propose now to speak of the economic 

 uses to which man has applied this class. 



At almost the earliest period in which we discover evidence 

 of the existence of man, we find the primitive races dwelling 

 upon the sea-shore, and subsisting largely upon mollusca; 

 leaving at one point shell- mounds of oyster- valves, associated 

 with rudely- fashioned flint knives, employed in opening them; 

 at another, the broken fragments of turbinated univalves, and 

 the round stone hammers used in crushing the shell to procure 

 the bonne bouchee it enclosed. 



Nor did the mere cravings of hunger impel them to seek 

 shell-fish as articles of food, for in the limestone caverns of 

 France and Belgium numerous remains of shells of mollusca 

 have been met with, pierced with holes, for the purpose of 

 attaching them to some article of dress or head-gear. 



Among the aborigines of the present day, in whatever 

 region of the earth they dwell, the same economic uses of 

 mollusca prevail, and their practices serve to throw "much light 

 upon the fragmentary remains of their pre-historic ancestry. 



Shell-fish as articles of food. — No shell-fish has, probably, 

 endured more severe havoc from mankind than the common 



* From the Xotes of the late Dr. S. P. Woodward, F.O.S., etc., and othor 

 sources. 



VOL. XT.— NO. III. M 



