Land and Fresh Water Shells. 45 



bottles are flattened-oval, they may be carried in waistcoat pockets 

 sewed on the outside, and will always be convenient of access. 



A pair of dissecting forceps, of the medium size. These will be 

 found useful in picking up loose small shells, in taking them from 

 crevices in bark, old logs, etc. The point of a penknife answers equally 

 well if skillfully handled. This is a "knack" to be acquired by practice. 



Two or three flattish boxes, of different sizes, that will readily slip 

 into and out of the coat pockets. 



A rake, made as follows: have a " head" made of good oak or hick- 

 ory, about nine inches long, and one inch by one and one half inch. 

 In the center make an oval hole for the handle, one inch long and .one 

 half inch or more wide in the center. Put two blunt teeth, each two 

 and a half inches long, exclusive of the part in the head, on each side 

 of the handle, so spacing the holes bored to receive them as to make 

 the spaces between the teeth equal. Make the teeth of the toughest 

 seasoned hickory. Make, of the same material, a smooth and straight 

 * handle, twenty inches long, with one end exactly fitted to the hole in 

 the head. This end should project through the head at least three 

 fourths of an inch. It should be bound by a narrow ferule, so set into 

 the wood as to permit the handle to slip into the head readily. A hole 

 for a small steel spring key should be made between the ferule and the 

 rake head, and so close to each that the key, when in place, shall rest 

 against the ferule on or\£ side, and the rake head on the other. The 

 oval part of the handle fitting the hole in the rake head, should 

 have a shoulder, so that the inside of the rake-head will rest 

 against this, and the outside against the key. When not in 

 use the rake can be taken apart by withdrawing the key, and the 

 whole implement can be carried in the coat pockets. This in- 

 strument is indispensable. With it hillsides may be rapidly raked 

 over, or an} T other grounds inhabited by land shells, and, if the hands 

 are covered with buckskin gloves, briar patches, and other forbidden 

 localities may be explored, and they are often very productive. As 

 much surface can be worked over, with this implement, in half an hour, 

 with perfect comfort and cleanliness, and without injury to the hands, 

 as in half a day using the finders only, and regions can be examined 

 that it would be impossible to explore without it. 



A small tool, made like a hatchet, with a narrow blade at one end, 

 and somewhat hooked and pointed at the other, after the fashion of a 

 geologist's pick, is very convenient for picking and hacking in pieces 

 old logs, cutting away brush, pulling over stones, etc. 



