

THE HALIOTIS, OR PEARLY EAR-SHELL. 255 
The shells are also shipped from San Francisco to China 
and Europe in considerable quantities. In the former coun- 
try they are used for inlaying in connection with the lacquer- 
work for which the Chinese are so famous, while in Europe 
they are used in the arts, and many are polished and treated 
with acid, to be returned to the United States and sold for 
card receivers or ornamental objects. 
Their beauty has not escaped the eye of the savage, as 
pieces of the shells are worked into a variety of forms and 
worn to ornament the person, by the Indians of north-west 
America. They are also esteemed by the Indians living in 
the interior of the continent. My friend, Dr. Edward Pal- 
mer, recently informed me that when he was in the Indian 
Territory he saw a horse purchased with an Abalone shell. 
They are still held in esteem, but are not so highly prized as 
formerly. 
Jeffreys says that in some parts of Guernsey the ormer 
was used for the purpose of frightening the small birds from 
the Standing corn; three or four shells are strung loosely 
together and suspended from the top of a pole, so as to 
make a clatter when moved by the wind. Formerly they 
Were used there to ornament the plastered exteriors of cot- 
tages, the plaster being studded with them. 
In some places in California I have seen the shells of 
Haliotis rufescens suspended beside a sink, or placed upon a 
toilet-stand for holding the soap. They are quite conven- 
lent to the collector for holding or carrying smaller speci- 
mens in while searching along the shore, a purpose for which 
I have frequently used them. Sometimes the naturalist is 
Wellrepaid by the examination of the back of large speci- 
mens of the roughly sculptured species; for, besides the 
. Miniature forest of marine vegetation, corallines, alge, ete., 
Which furnish an abiding place for diatoms and other minute 
forms, in the crevices of the shell can be found numerous 
* Small species of mollusca that would otherwise be seldom 
obtained. 

