LANDFALL AND ISLAND' SURVIVAL 
41 
dated by all native peoples. All you need to do is work along 
the beacb when the tide is out and gather a supply. There will 
be no difficulty in finding mollusks by turning over blocks of 
coral rock or picking them up in exposed situations. If you 
do not see anything but empty shells walk slowly along the beach 
and watch for bubbles in the sand — like those seen in the bot- 
tom of springs. When you see them dig down and you will find 
your mollusks. Shellfish can be eaten raw, as we eat oysters, 
and the juice coming from clams is not only nutritious but serves 
to quench thirst as well. The shells can be crushed with a 
rock or a piece of wood and the animal be extracted. Shellfish 
can be cooked by covering them with sand or earth and building 
a fire over the pile. (For fire-making methods when you have 
no matches see section under Tropical Forests p. 65.) When 
this is done they steam in their own juices. They can also be 
cooked by being dropped in a container of boiling water. Sec- 
tions of bamboo can serve this purpose. Cut a section from a 
large bamboo stem, preserving one of the joints to form the bot- 
tom. The green shell is so durable that water can be boiled in 
it before the bamboo burns. If the container is held over the 
fire on a slant rather than straight up and down, the water 
heats faster. A hole lined with canvas or other material which 
will hold water can also be used for cooking. In the latter 
case hot rocks moved from the fire by improvised wooden tongs 
are dropped into the water until boiling is complete. Mollusks 
are found on reefs and beaches everywhere in this vast south- 
ern area. Similar forms appear in other tropical seas such as 
the Caribbean and parts of the South Atlantic. 
There are two groups of tropical mollusks, fortunately not 
common, that should be avoided. These are the cones, so named 
