370 
SHELLS. 
[Chap. XI. 
sunrise to fish, and at evening return to their solitary 
breeding-places remote from the beach. The strand is 
literally covered with beautiful shells in rich profusion, 
and the dealers from Trincomalie know the proper season 
to visit the bay for each particular description. The en- 
tire coast, however, as far north as the Elephant Pass, is 
indented by little rocky inlets, where shells of endless 
variety may be collected in great abundance. 1 Dur- 
ing the north-east monsoon a formidable surf bursts 
upon the shore, which is here piled high with mounds 
of yellow sand; and the remains of shells upon the 
water mark show how rich the 
sea is in mollusca. Amongst them 
are prodigious numbers of the 
ubiquitous violet-coloured Ian- 
thina 2 , which rises when the 
ocean is calm, and by means of 
its inflated vesicles floats lightly on the surface. 
The trade in shells is one of extreme antiquity 
in Ceylon. The Gulf of Manaar has been fished from 
the earliest times for the large chank shell, Turbinella 
1 In one of these beautiful little 
bays near Catchavelly, between 
Trincomalie and Batticaloa, I found 
the sand within the wash of the 
sea literally covered with mollusca 
and shells, and amongst others a 
species of Bullia (B. vittata, I 
think), the inhabitant of which 
has the faculty of mooring itself 
firmly by sending down its mem- 
branous foot into the wet sand, 
where, imbibing the water, this 
organ expands horizontally into a 
broad fleshy disc, by which the 
animal anchors itself, and thus 
secured, collects its food in the 
ripple of the waves. On the 
slightest alarm, the water is dis- 
charged, the disc collapses into its 
original dimensions, and the shell 
and its inhabitant disappear to- 
gether beneath the sand. 
BULLIA VITTATA, 
2 Ianthina communis, Krauss, 
and I. prolong ata, Blainv. 
