When shells are obtainable, who can resist the impulse to gather them? The man, woman, or child who is proof against the seductive powers of the beautiful and many-colored shells of the seashore "is fit for treason, stratagems, and spoils." Next to the pleasure of collecting shells one's self is that of witnessing the keen delight of children and ladies in gathering these beautiful treasures of the sea. If you have never yet had an opportunity to stroll along the smooth sands of an ocean beach at low tide, and gather your basketful of beautiful shells, curious sponges, bits of coral and coralline, while your soul is soothed by the rhythmic music of the surf, then I pity you. You have indeed yet something left to live for.
Hooker has divided the shell-bearing mollusca into three great groups—land, fresh-water, and marine—and the shell collector will do well to study each one separately.
Land Shells.—These are most abundant in the tropics, less so in the subtropical regions, and are rare elsewhere. They are seldom found where moisture is not abundant. In the tropics they are to be collected all the year round, but in the temperate zone it is best to collect them in the autumn, when they are fully grown. It is impossible, without devoting too much space to this subject, to give more than a general idea of the situations in which land shells are found. Some species are to be looked for on trees and bushes; others on rocks and stone walls; others again on the ground, and others again on the blades or in the roots of grass. In the tropics it is particularly desirable to watch for the beautiful land snails, which are almost strictly arboreal in their habits. They are to be found on the trunks and leaves of palms, the banana, myrtle, orange, and scores of other trees and shrubs.
Fresh-Water Shells which inhabit clear and shallow water are easily gathered with a stout hand-net. Where the water is murky, or so deep that the bottom cannot be seen, it is necessary to have an instrument like an iron-toothed rake, with the teeth set closely together, to be used as a sort of clam-dredge, raking the bottom and gathering up the mussels. In our own country the amateur collector will doubtless be surprised at the number of species of Unio which will repay the labors of a diligent collector.
Marine Shells.—If you would have one of the jolliest picnics in the world, don a suit of old clothes, equip yourself with a stout basket, a screw-driver with a long handle, and a case-knife with a thin blade,
"Hang up thy lute and hie thee to the sea."
Go before the tide is at its lowest ebb, and search in the vicinity of the largest boulders,[** bowlders] under ledges of rock, under loose stones, in shallow pools, in bunches of sea-weed, in fact everywhere along the shore. In these various places you will find cowries, ormers (Haliotis), chitons, limpets, and more others than I could name in an hour.
When wading in shallow water it is well to look out for the pestiferous sting-ray, and not step on one unawares, lest you find its caudal spine driven through your foot like a poisoned arrow. But, fortunately, they seldom trouble the collector. With the limpets, chitons, and other small shell-fish, you must work the point of your case-knife under them, and with it gradually detach them from the rock. Where such prey is plentiful, the collecting of it is grand fun, I assure you.
There are many bivalves which burrow or bury in the mud or sand, which must be dug out with a stick or trowel, while other species, still more enterprising, bore into wooden piles, and even into rocks! These, of course, can be collected only with the aid of a hatchet, or chisel, or stone-hammer, as the case may be. If you are on the Florida coast you will do well to search over the coral reefs and the mud flats at low tide. On the latter you will find conch-shells, pinnas, and numerous other species. I once made a very successful search for pinnas by wading around barefooted on a sandy flat on which the receding tide had left the water but little over a foot in depth. These shells were always found standing up in the sand, at bay, with their sharp edge up. By going barefooted as I did, you find the shells by stepping on them and cutting your feet, which is to be accomplished, however, without hurting the thin edge of the shell. A cut foot will heal up, but a broken shell never will.
Cleaning Shells.[7]—In gathering shells, particularly the marine species, many of them will be found covered with a thick, leathery, and persistent epidermis, and many others will be so buried under rough, limy accretions that their own fathers would scarcely recognize them. However beautiful such shells may be when cleaned, it is no child's play to clean them and get them ready for the cabinet. To any one willing to learn, the processes are really very simple; and what manual labor under the sun could be more interesting to a lover of natural history?