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114 
them a lustre and brilliancy, that those of colder climates 
• always want; and it may be, that the waters of those vast 
seas, which are not subject to be weakened by fresh rivers, 
give a nourishment to the fish, that may add to the brilliancy 
of their shells. 
The shores of Asia furnish us with the pearl oysters and 
scallops in great perfection. About Amboyna are found 
the most beautiful specimens of the cabbage-shell, the arro- 
soir, the ducal mantle, and the coral oysters, or echinated 
oysters. Here also are found a great variety of extremely 
beautiful muscles, tellinae, and volutae; some fine buccinums, 
and the shell called the Ethiopian crown, in its greatest per¬ 
fection. 
The dolia, the murices, and the cassandrae, are also found 
on these coasts in great beauty. Many elegant snails and 
screw-shells are also brought from thence ; and finally the 
serapion and spider-shells. Hist. Nat. Eclaire. 
The Maidive, and Philippine islands, Bengal, and the 
coast of Malabar, abound with the most elegant of all the 
species of snails, and furnish many other kinds of shells in 
great abundance and perfection. 
China abounds in the finest species of porcelain shells, and 
has also a great variety of beautiful snails. 
Japan furnishes us with all the thicker and larger bi¬ 
valves; and the isle of Cyprus is famous above all other 
parts of the world, for the beauty and variety of the patella, 
or limpet, found there. 
America affords many very elegant shells, but neither in 
so great abundance nor beauty as the shores of Asia. 
Panama is famous for the cylinders or rliombi, and we 
have beside, from the same place, some good porcelains, 
and a very fine species of dolium, or concha globosa, called 
from this place the Panama purple shell. One of the most 
beautiful of the cylinders is also known among our na¬ 
turalists under the name of the Panama shell. 
SHELL, Arabian, a name given by some to a species of 
porcelain shell, not because it is found on the coast of Ara¬ 
bia, but because its lines and variegations are supposed to 
represent the figures of Arabic characters. 
Shell, Aurora, a very remarkable species of shell-fish, 
found in cabinets of the curious. It is of the figure of a 
bird, having a head, wings and tail, and is of a flame-colour; 
it owes much of its beauty, however, to art and accident ; 
the shell is an oyster of a peculiar variation of figure from 
the common one; the head of the bird is the cardo or hinge; 
the wings are the body of the shells; and the tail is a pecu¬ 
liar process, like that of the marteau, only single. 
It is naturally of a dusky brown on the outside, and pearly 
•within, but when its rough coat is taken off, it appears of 
this beautiful flame-colour. 
Shell, Caterpillar: see Turbo.—Shell, Centre: a 
name given to the balanus marinus.— Shell, Chalice, or 
Cup-shell: a species of the balanus.— Shell, China-letter: 
a name given by many to the chama Arabica. It is of a 
pale brownish ground, and is variegated with a great num¬ 
ber of black lines, which are as slender as the strokes of a 
pen, and are of such odd figures, that they represent some 
of the Arabic, or, as others fancy, Chinese characters.— 
Shell, Crown Imperial: a species of the voluta.— Shell, 
Dog-tooth : a species of dentalis.— Shell, Guinea: the 
English name for a very beautiful variegated species of 
voluta.— Shell, Helmet: the name of a kind of murex, of 
which there are several species. They all approach some¬ 
what towards a triangular figure, and are free trom any 
long spines.— Shell, Leopard: the English name of the 
pardus, a kind of voluta, so called from its resembling those 
of a leopard.— Shell, Lightning: a name given by some 
authors to a species of murex, with variegations on its body, 
resembling the pictures we commonly see of flashes of light¬ 
ning. —Shell, Map: the name given by some to a pecu¬ 
liar species of porcelain shell, the figures on which represent 
the lines on a map.— Shell, Old Wife: the name given 
by some to a species of chama, which the French also have 
called vie lie ridce. — Shell, Saddle: the name of a species 
SHE 
of oyster, which in some degree represents a saddle in its 
shape.— Shell, Scorpion : the name of a species of murex. 
—Shell, Small-pox, a name given to a remarkable kind 
of concha venerea, or porcelain shell.— Shell, Strawberry: 
a name given by collectors of shells to a very beautiful 
species of cordiformis.— Shell, Swallow: a name given 
by authors to a species of ostrea, which in some degree re¬ 
presents the figure of a small bird flying.— Shell, Tiger: 
the name of a species of concha venerea.— Shell, Turtle: 
the name of two species of shells. 
SHELL-APPLE, in Ornithology, an English name for 
the loxia or cross bill, given from his manner of splitting an 
apple, and feeding on the kernels, leaving the shell of the 
pulp untouched. 
SHELL-DRAKE, a common English name for the ta- 
dorna. 
SHELL-FISH, a collective name for fishes naturally in¬ 
closed in shells. These animals are in general oviparous, 
very few instances having been found of such as are vivi¬ 
parous. 
SHELL-TOOTHED, an appellation given to a horse 
that from four years old to old age, naturally, and without 
any artifice, still keeps in all his fore-teeth that hollow 
place with the black mark, which is called in French gerrne 
defeve, i. e. the eye of a bean, insomuch, that at twelve 
or fifteen he appears with the mark of a horse that is not 
yet six; for in the nippers of other horses, the hollow 
place is filled, and the mark disappears towards the sixth 
year, by reason of the wearing of the tooth. About the 
same age it is half worn out in the middling teeth, and to¬ 
wards the eighth year it disappears in the corner teeth, but 
after a shell-toothed horse has marked, he marks still equally 
in the nippers, the middling and the corner teeth; which 
proceeds from this, that having harder teeth than other horses, 
his teeth do not wear, and so he does not loose the black 
spot. 
Among the Polish, Hungarian and Croatian horses, we 
find a great many of them hollow-toothed, and generally the 
mares are more apt to be so than the horses. 
SHELLS, Message, are howitz-shells, within which 
are inclosed a letter, or other papers; the fuze-hole is stop¬ 
ped up with wood or cork, and the shells are fired into a 
garrison or camp. 
Shell of a Block, in Mechanics, is the outer frame or 
case, in which the sheave or wheel is contained, and traverses 
about its axis. 
SHELL-ROOM, in Ship-Building, a compartment in a 
bomb-vessel, fitted up with strong shelves, excavated so as 
to receive the bomb-shells when charged ; it is therefore built 
as secure as possible, to prevent accident from fire. 
To SHELL, v. a. [Sax. aj'cealian, ajcdian, to peel.} To 
take out of the shell; to stripe of the shell. 
To SHELL, v. n. To fall off as broken shells.—The 
ulcers were cured, and the scabs shelled off. Wiseman .— 
—To cast the shell. 
SHELL ISLAND, a small island near the coast of 
Carolina, in Pamlico sound. Lat. 34. 50. N. long. 76. 
30. W. 
SHELL KEY, a small island or rock in the gulf of 
Mexico. Lat. 29. 48. N. long. 89. 15. W. 
SHELLA, a small ruined town of Morocco, in the pro¬ 
vince of Benihassen, about four miles to the east of Rabat. 
It is supposed to have been anciently the capital of all the 
Carthaginian colonies on the western coast of Africa. Many 
Roman and ancient African coins are still found there. It 
is considered also by the Moors as a sacred asylum, and 
contains many tombs held by them in great veneration. 
SHELLAM, a district in the south of India, province of 
the Upper Carnatic, between Lat. 11. and 12. N. It is now 
included in the eollectorship of Kistnaghery. 
SHELLAM, the capital of the abovementioned district, 
generally called Great Shellam. It was formerly fortified. 
Lat. 11. 39. N. long. 78. 23. E.—There are two other towns 
of this name in the Carnatic, but neither of consequence. 
SHELLAND, 
