PREFACE. 



The following pages are designed to facilitate 

 the study of a branch of Natural History 

 which is daily becoming more attractive and 

 more important ; not only from its intrinsic 

 interest, but also from its multiplied relations 

 with Geology. They will furnish the young 

 Conchologist with an elementary manual, which, 

 although scientific in its form, is, by the sim- 

 plicity of its method and the familiarity of 

 its style, calculated effectually to assist him 

 in the early steps of his progress in this fasci- 

 nating pursuit. The satisfaction he may have 

 derived from possessing specimens of shells 

 cannot fail to be greatly increased when, by 

 the aid of this little volume, he has learned 

 how to arrange them in proper scientific order, 

 and discovered their names, localities, uses, 

 and habits. When his cabinet has been thus 

 a 3 



