OOQ 
LITTLE FOLKS 
A STRANGE CREATURE. 
I'm sure you have seen the shell that this curious creature 
carries about with him. It belongs to a family called Strombs, 
and this one is called Strombns Gigas. 
He has a head you see, a foot to get about on, a pair of ten- 
tacles, a pair of eyes which are large, and provided with a pupil 
and iris, so that they look more like our eyes than the black specks 
which the cowries have. It has also a trunk or proboscis, and a 
horny kind of an operculum, or door, with which it can partly close 
up its house when it desires seclusion. 
The whole family of Strombs are so shy in their ways, that 
very little is known about them. They live in Tropical seas, and 
their beautiful shells — which are rose pink inside — are used to 
cut into cameos. This picture is of the Giant Stromb, and the 
shell sometimes weighs four or five pounds. In one year, three 
hundred thousand of these shells were brought to Liverpool. ^ 
It is also put to other uses. Sometimes it is eaten — in the 
Barbadoes it is a regular object to be found in the markets. In 
other places the shell is used for paving. The streets of Vera 
Cruz are said to be paved with them. 
