856 The American Naturalist. [Oetober, 
from theshell I have seen three and four dozen abalones 
dried and strung on a cord, in Mexican grocery stores, hung 
beside dozens of strings of red peppers or chilles so gratifying 
to the Mexican palate. Abalones, when dried, have the ap- 
pearance of leather, excepting that they are oily in their ap- 
pearance. In shape they are nearly oblong and two or three 
inches thick. The great muscular foot slopes backward over 
an inch before it is enlarged by the epopodial ridge with its 
numerous cirri, and this contraction is noticeable in the dried 
fish. 
As an article of commerce the shells are of considerable 
importance, or rather have been, as it is said, the immense 
traffic has almost “stripped the coast as far south as Cerros 
Island,” Lower California. Three hundred tons are said to 
have been shipped from the coast in one year. Fifty tons 
being handled by one man in a month’s time. “The greater 
portion of these are (in 1889) collected on the coast of Lower 
California. The Chinese are the principal gatherers, notwith- 
standing they are probibited by the Mexican laws. The 
shells are sold at $20 to $35 per ton, according to the quality.” 
When shells are sold by the bulk there is always a large per- 
centage of dead and imperfect specimens, as the best shells. 
are picked out and sold to retail dealers on the coast. A shell 
that is perforated by worms or molluscs is of no value as a 
polished shell. When the animal has been removed from the 
shell and the latter has laid on the beach subjected to the sun 
and the weather, the mother-of-pearl becomes dull and unat- 
tractive, and such shells are known as dead shells. 
In California dead shells collected on the beach are often 
used, instead of stones, for rockeries, and also as borders for 
flower beds. It would be impossible to enumerate the orna- 
mental uses to which abalones are applied. “In China they 
are broken up and used for inlaying in connection with lac- 
quer work for which the Chinese are famous. The Mosaics of 
Europe are often adorned in the same way.” Although the 
pearl oyster (Maleagrina margaritifera) is used where a pearly- 
white tint, such as seen in the pearl handles of silver table 
"The West Amer. Scientist, April, 1889, p. 12. : 
