\} APPLETONS HOME READING BOOKS STHE })| HALLOF SHELLS} | og ——~ | ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY ‘ornell University Libra The hall of shells; ‘ii Lppletons’ thome Reading Books EDITED BY WILLIAM T. HARRIS, A.M., LL. D. UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION DIVISION | NATURAL HISTORY (zi ABALONES, 1, 3, 4, Cerianthus membranicus—different varieties. 2, Shell and liv ing Haliotis tubereulata. 5,10, Actinia equina. 6, Actinia cari. Haliotis rufescens. 8, Haliactis bellis. 9, Eloactis mazelii. animal, 7, Empty shell of APPLETONS’ HOME READING BOOKS THE HALL OF SHELLS BY MRS. A. S. HARDY AUTHOR OF THREE SINGERS NEW YORK . D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1897 Copynricat, 1897, By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. INTRODUCTION TO THE HOME READING BOOK SERIES BY THE EDITOR. THE new education takes two important direc- tions—one of these is toward original observation, requiring the pupil to test and verify what is taught him at school by his own experiments. The infor- mation that he learns from books or hears from his teacher’s lips must be assimilated by incorporating it with his own experience. The other direction pointed out by the new edu- cation is systematic home reading. It forms a part of school extension of all kinds. The so-called “ Univer- sity Extension” that originated at Cambridge and Ox- ford has as its chief feature the aid of home reading by lectures and round-table discussions, led or conducted by experts who also lay out the course of reading. The Chautauquan movement in this country prescribes a series of excellent books and furnishes for a goodly number of its readers annual courses of lectures. The teachers’ reading circles that exist in many States pre- scribe the books to be read, and publish some analysis, commentary, or catechism to aid the members. Home reading, it seems, furnishes the essential basis of this great movement to extend education v vi THE HALL OF SHELLS, beyond the school and to make self-culture a habit of life. Looking more carefully at the difference between the two directions of the new education we can see what each accomplishes. There is first an effort to train the original powers of the individual and make him self-active, quick at observation, and free in his thinking. Next, the new education endeavors, by the reading of books and the study of the wisdom of the race, to make the child or youth a participator in the results of experience of all mankind. These two movements may be made antagonistic by poor teaching. The book knowledge, containing as it does the precious lesson of human experience, may be so taught as to bring with it only dead rules of conduct, only dead scraps of information, and no stimulant to original thinking. Its contents may be memorized without being understood. On the other hand, the self-activity of the child may be stimulated at the expense of his social well-being—his originality may be cultivated at the expense of his rationality. If he is taught persistently to have his own way, to trust only his own senses, to cling to his own opinions heedless of the experience of his fellows, he is pre- paring for an unsuccessful, misanthropic career, and is likely enough to end his life in a madhouse. It is admitted that a too exclusive study of the knowledge found in books, the knowledge which is aggregated from the experience and thought of other people, may result in loading the mind of the pupil with material which he can not use to advantage. EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. vil Some minds are so full of lumber that there is no space left to set up a workshop. The necessity of uniting both of these directions of intellectual activity in the schools is therefore obvious, but we must not, in this place, fall into the error of supposing that it is the oral instruction in school and the personal influ- ence of the teacher alone that excites the pupil to ac- tivity. Book instruction is not always dry and theo- retical. The very persons who declaim against the book, and praise in such strong terms the self-activity of the pupil and original research, are mostly persons who have received their practical impulse from read- ing the writings of educational reformers. Very few persons have received an impulse from personal con- tact with inspiring teachers compared with the num- ber that have received an impulse from such books as Herbert Spencer’s Treatise on Education, Rousseau’s Emile, Pestalozzi’s Leonard and Gertrude, Francis W. Parker’s Talks about Teaching, G. Stanley Hall’s Pedagogical Seminary. Think in this connec- tion, too, of the impulse to observation in natural sci- ence produced by such books as those of Hugh Miller, Faraday, Tyndall, Huxley, Agassiz, and Darwin. The new scientific book is different from the old. The old style book of science gave dead results where the new one gives not only the results, but a minute account of the method employed in reaching those re- sults. An insight into the method employed in dis- covery trains the reader into a naturalist, an historian, a sociologist. The books of the writers above named have done more to stimulate original research on the vill THE HALL OF SHELLS. part of their readers than all other influences com- -bined. It is therefore much more a matter of importance to get the right kind of book than to get a living teacher. The book which teaches results, and at the same time gives in an intelligible manner the steps of discovery and the methods employed, is a book which will stimulate the student to repeat the ex- periments described and get beyond these into fields of original research himself. Every one remem- bers the published lectures of Faraday on chemistry, which exercised a wide influence in changing the style of books on natural science, causing them to deal with method more than results, and thus to train the reader’s power of conducting original research. Robinson Crusoe for nearly two hundred years has stimulated adventure and prompted young men to resort to the border lands of civilization. A library of home reading should contain books that stimulate to self-activity and arouse the spirit of inquiry. The books should treat of methods of discovery and evo- lution. All nature is unified by the discovery of the law of evolution. Each and every being in the world is now explained by the process of development to which it belongs. Every fact now throws light on all the others by illustrating the process of growth in which each has its end and aim. The Home Reading Books are to be classed as follows: First Diwision, Natural history, including popular scientific treatises on plants and animals, and also de- EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. ix scriptions of geographical localities. The branch of study in the district school course which corresponds to this is geography. Travels and sojourns in distant lands; special writings which treat of this or that animal or plant, or family of animals or plants; any- thing that relates to organic nature or to meteorol- ogy, or descriptive astronomy may be placed in this class. Second Division. Whatever relates to physics or natural philosophy, to the statics or dynamics of air or water or light or electricity, or to the properties of matter; whatever relates to chemistry, either organic or inorganic—books on these subjects belong to the class that relates to what is inorganic. Even the so- called organic chemistry relates to the analysis of organic bodies into their inorganic compounds. Third Division. History and biography and eth- nology. Books relating to the lives of individuals, and especially to the social life of the nation, and to the collisions of nations in war, as well as to the aid that one gives to another through commerce in times of peace; books on ethnology relating to the manners and customs of savage or civilized peoples; books on the primitive manners and customs which belong to the earliest human beings—books on these subjects be- long to the third class, relating particularly to the hu- man will, not merely the individual will but the social will, the will of the tribe or nation; and to this third class belong also books on ethics and morals, and on forms of government and laws, and what is included under the term civics or the duties of citizenship. x THE HALL OF SHELLS. Fourth Division. The fourth class of books in- cludes more especially literature and works that make known the beautiful in such departments as sculpture, painting, architecture and music. Literature and art show human nature in the form of feelings, emotions, and aspirations, and they show how these feelings lead over to deeds and to clear thoughts. This de- partment of books is perhaps more important than any other in our home reading, inasmuch as it teaches a knowledge of human nature and enables us to un- derstand the motives that lead our fellow-men to action. To each book is added an analysis in order to aid the reader in separating the essential points from the unessential, and give each its proper share of atten- tion, W. T. Harris. Wasuneron, D. C., November 16, 1896. PREFACE. Tue changing greens of the ocean, the wim. ple of its waters when at peace, abide among the pleasantest memories of my early childhood. Glimpses into the sea, as pictured by Fouqué, still have fascinations surpassing fact or fiction of these later days. This little book is published with the hope that it may lead to a fuller study of some of the most interesting and most beautiful crea- tions in Nature. Books upon marine shells, either not too expensive or too learned for com- mon use, are few; hence it is hoped that this little volume may help to awaken an interest in the sea and its treasures, which can but grow with the years and afford an ever-widening and deepening source of delight and of profit. Pearls let slip from their broken string, led —in the story—to the hidden casket. So may x1 xii THE HALL OF SHELLS. these simple studies be like bits of pearly wampum, leading to a thesaurus wherein is a treasure trove. Mrs. A. S. Harpy. UNIONVILLE, OHIO, July, 1897. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I.—FourR PEOPLE AND THE HALL OF SHELLS J].—THE MERMAID’S TEA SERVICE . Il].—Purpuras.—MvreExeEs IV.—MicroscoPic SHELLS . V.—IANTHINA.—TRITONIA VI.—SEA SECRETS j ; ' VII—A PorTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR.—THE MEDUS& FAM- ILY VIII.—PrEaris.—MorTHER-OF-PEARL IX.—FLOWERS OF THE SEA.—STORY OF THE MERMAID’S LACE. z é 3 ‘i X.—TuHe Arconaut.—THE NAUTILUS XI.—RockeED IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP . XII.—Gay, SAD SCHEVENINGEN . XIII.—AN ANCIENT FAMILY . XIV.—BaRNACLES XV.—A SEA FAN AND A SEA PARABLE . XVIL—A _ stTorm.—Razor FISHES.—Byssus SPINNERS.— STONE EATERS,—LIGHTED TOMBS. XVII.—OLIvEs : XVIII.—GrowTH OF SHELLS . X1X.—“ THINGS UNRECE’D OF ” XX.—TROUBLE . ‘ xiii PAGE 13 27 83 37 43 51 61 73 83 93 99 109 117 123 185 145 155 163 169 LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS. FACING PAGE Abalones . ;: ‘i ‘ 5 : Frontispiece Listening to the smooth-lipped shell; Triton variegatus . 19 Pilgrim wearing his badge of knighthood. ‘ s . 22 The legend of the Tyrian dye. ‘ : ‘ ‘ ‘ . 28 The comb of pearl . ; ; ‘ ‘ : . 29 “One-seated shallops whose etuien have departed” . » Ol Hydroids and jelly-fish . : : é ‘ F : . 56 Pearl-producing shells . i : ‘ 640 The mermaid’s lace . 3 . The argonaut . : é ‘ ; : . 84 Scheveningen shell-gatherer . : : : : . 106 A sea lily. : F ‘ : < o AY Fishing for sea cucumbers in the Philippine Islands; Holo- thuride . : : ‘ ; ; : ‘ . 115 Barnacles . ; ; : : ‘ é ; ; : . 119 A fan gorgon; Hermit crab . ‘ ; ; s ’ . 181 Janthina communis, or violet snail, with float supporting eggs; Patella vulgata; Empty shell of Ianthina; Ensis ensis, or razor shell . A : , . 189 Conus textile; Conus imperialis ; Oliva ee Oliva por- phyrea; Phasianella ventricosa; Murex princeps . . 151 XV ANALYSIS -OF HALL OF SHELLS, WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY. Tue following paragraphs are intended more as helps to those who may wish to continue studies here begun than as any perfect analysis of chapters. The books which have been especially helpful in preparing these studies are here indicated, and their helpfulness acknowledged. As will be seen, authorities are sometimes referred to and studies suggested which do not relate to shells at all, but from the nature of this little volume have seemed to belong here. CHAPTER I.—Introduction of our friends the Bremelys to the new minister, and the ocean whose name is Peace. Interest in the starfish and the Haliotis begun ; the mouth and stomach of the former indicated, and the nervous sys- tem of the latter. For further understanding of these con- sult zodlogies and encyclopedias. For runes of the North- men read the Sagas, Scandinavian mythology, and Odin, by Carlyle. The works of Fouqué, whom Richter chris- tened ‘The Valiant,” furnish weird and graceful tales of the sea. Read the classics, in original or translations. CHAPTER II.—The Pecten and Patella have been used as plates and drinking vessels at different times and by various nations ; the former served as a badge of knight- hood. The beauty and wonderful construction of the 2 xvii Xvili THE HALL OF SHELLS. mollusks tenanting these shells surpass the marvelously contrived houses in which they live. The power of adhe- sion possessed by the Patella and its ability to sustain great weights should be tested by those who have access to seacoasts. Read Mollusca, their Shells, Tongues, yes, and Ears, by Philip Henry Gosse, F.R.8. Hxamine com- mon garden snails, comparing their eyes with those of the Pecten upon the seacoast. CHAPTER III.—The extensive use of Purpuras and Murexes in the ancient dying of purples is shown by the little mountains of shells still lying in vicinities where this industry was plied. The coloring matter—-but a drop —contained in a veinlike sac. The Purpura the crest of the city of Tyre. Study Tyre, and learn of the caldron- like cavities in the rocks where these shells were crushed. Compare the shells of this family, noting how the whorls of some of these shells are thickened by varices or nodes, indicating rest periods in growth; also the immense de- velopment of the last whirl in some; the elongated spines in others. CHAPTER IV.—Observe with a strong microscope the beauty of coil and polish in the most minute shells. Where living specimens can be examined the tenants of these diminutive shells will be found to possess as compli- cated and delicate organisms as those of larger growth. Study sand from any sea beach. Shake the sand and atoms from sponges on sale, then count and examine the treasures you will find. CHAPTER V.—Undine finds a “sea horn” among her shells. It is the shell Neptune’s trumpeter is fabled to have used to still the tumult of the sea. Tritonia tritonis used as a teakettle, the operculum its cover. Ianthina fra- gilis, preserved through the beating of waves and the grinding of sand, bears its egg capsules beneath a float, and buoyed up upon the tossing seas the delicate creatures’ are born to the purple. . The horny operculum of land snails maybe seen, and ANALYSIS OF HALL OF SHELLS. xix its connection by strong muscle with the animal tested. Look up in an encyclopzedia how the cartilaginous air vesi- cles composing the egg float of the sea snail are secreted and how attached. CuapteR VI.—The dip net brings up marvels un- dreamed of before ; the brine and mud become full of les- sons; hydroids, scalaria, stomapod, and Sapphirina give up their secrets. The sea bottom is shown by science to be more than a fairyland. A dip net may be used in study in either salt or fresh water. Read The Bottom of the Sea, by T. Sourel. CHAPTER VII.—The Physalia or Portuguese man-of- war is sometimes driven up from the tropic seas and stranded. It is one of the most interesting of the J/edusce family ; armed with poison-filled tentacles which are its weapons of defense, and by them its food is obtained. The study of the Medusc, either in books or actual life, watch- ing development, will fill many days with delightful em- ployment. In fresh water, common Hydra may be found under leaves of aquatic plants. Cut them in pieces and see their power of reproduction from the severed pieces. Turn them inside out and see the result. CHapter VIIL.—Origin of pearls was formerly ac- counted for by drops of dew becoming solidified. Pearls are formed over hard, offensive matter within the folds of the mantle, also secreted and used as nacre by the animal in mending points of irritation. Pearls most highly esteemed by all nations and at all times. Pearls are of various colors and each color has its peculiar votaries. The pearl Cleopatra drank questioned by science. The rainbow shells of the Haliotide called Awabi in Japan, abalone in California. The iridescence of their nacreous lining due to the laminations of nacre secreted by the animal and irregularly overlapping in delicate films. Read Precious Stones, by Harry Emanuel. Cuaprer IX.—Term Algce now includes much less than formerly, many specimens once held as vegetable XX THE HALL OF SHELLS. now consigned to animal kingdom. Have been variously classified, and the old classifications abandoned or giving place to those relating more particularly to structure and development. ; Alge draw their sustenance from the water, loving best the quiet seas of temperate zones, and depending upon light for their coloring. Find authority for the story in studies upon the ancient art of Venetian point lace. To secure and preserve the most delicate varieties of ‘seaweed, slip a paper under them while floating in the sea ora dish of water, raise carefully, arranging any imper- fect points with fine camel’s-hair brush or the point of a pin. Kelp must be pressed between oiled paper or pieces of muslin on account of the glue it contains. A gatherer of seaweeds when questioned regarding many varieties replied, “Oh, nobody knows!” Here, then, is a realm waiting and luring investigation. CHAPTER X.—Argonaut and nautilus—both cephalo- pods—are quite unlike in many points, yet their names have been indiscriminately used. There is a similarity in the form of their shells; that of the argonaut is, however, thin and [brittle, while the shell of the nautilus is thick and strong. This latter is divided into chambers, hence called the chambered nautilus. It is interesting to study the fossil species of these shells. CHAPTER XI.—The family Veneride contains many beauties long ago dedicated to Venus. Varieties of these shells are numerous, but all more or less beautifully sculp- tured and pictured. The value the aborigines attached to the round clam of the Atlantic coast has been preserved in its name Venus mercenaria. Clams may be studied in salt and fresh waters, the number and character of the teeth in their hinges observed. ‘The nervous system can be, with care and patience, worked out in the clam or fresh water mussél,” The family Chitonide are curiously constructed, en- ANALYSIS OF HALL OF SHELLS. Xxl abling the animal to accommodate itself to rounded sur- faces. Its shell consists of eight pieces. CHAPTER XII.—Scheveningen, Holland’s famous and fashionable resort, has its two villages and its two lives. The character of its people seems invigorated by their hard- ships. Its sand dunes, its sand beach, and its novel bath- ing arrangements are well given in Holland and its Peo- ple, by De Amicis. Cuaprer XIII.—The Echidermata is a spiny family as well as a family of distinction and beauty, all adhering more or less closely to the examplé and characteristics of their ancient ancestry. If possible, study living starfish, the fossils of this family, and compare the plan of the leath- ery exterior of Holothirians with the delicate plates of the Eehinus miliaris, and examine the spines of the latter and their wonderful adjustment. CHAPTER XIV.—In external appearance barnacles re- semble mollusks, in organism they are crustaceans. The changes accomplished in their various stages are explained in works upon zodlogy. CHAPTER XV.—The Gordonide, which were long be- lieved to be singular and gorgeous sea plants, are now known as the home and work of polypi. Some grow in long branch- like extensions, others look like network of jewels. Their relatives are the polypi—creators of the corals. The soft bodies of these builders are uniform in structure and close- ly adhere to their enlarged type—the sea anemone. Ex- amine and compare structure of different corals. CHAPTER XVI.—Storms destroy many shells while oth- ers equally fragile are lifted to places of safety upon the crest of the waves. Some burrow in the sand, as the Si- phonida, and are discovered by the jets of water they spout out when disturbed. Others are moored by cables of their own spinning : these are the byssus spinners, and notches may be observed in shells of this kind allowing of the passage of the byssus, which the animal attaches at will. Borers also excavate retreats in wood or rock, even some- xxii THE HALL OF SHELLS. times completely burying themselves in sepulchers of their own making. See tke work of pholades in the columns of the ancient temple of Serapis, at Pozzuolis. CHAPTER X VII.—Among the most beautiful of shells . are those of Olivide. The markings of some suggest delicate cuneiform and picture writing. The external sur- face of these is pictured entirely different from the deco- rations on layers just below. These mollusks have the ability to dissolve away earlier formed volutions. Study olives and cone shells in Structural and Systematic Con- chology, by George W. Tryon. CHAPTER XVIII.—Shells were once parts of the mantle or delicate films secreted by and thrown off from it: these harden, and unite with other tissues previously thrown off. Observe these layers joined to each other as shown in the more solid shell—the Cassides, for example. The color of shells also the secreting work of the man- tle ; tints dependent upon light. Still, how is a mystery. Observe under valves of shells where light has not reached. Cuaprer XIX.—See Land Shells, published by Ameri- ean Tract Society, for lessons upon the eyes of snails, and apparent affection among them. Sounds are produced by some varieties of sea slugs. Auditorial nerves are dis- covered in some shellfishes. Their whole surface ex- tremely sensitive. CHAPTER XX.—In the family Cypreide we find the beautiful porcelain shells which change their exquisite markings with different stages of growth. In this family members of the genus Ovulum are beautifully enameled, but lack the coloring of the Cyprea. FOUR PEOPLE AND THE HALL OF SHELLS. O ever-solitary sea, Of which we all have found Somewhat to dream or say—the type Of things without a bound— Love, long as life, and strong as death ; Faith, humble as sublime; Eternity, whose large depths hold The wrecks of this small Time. Miss MULOcK. And Nature, the old nurse, took The child upon her knee, Saying, “ Here is a story book Thy Father has written for thee.” LONGFELLOW. 2 I, FOUR PEOPLE AND THE HALL OF SHELLS. “Oxrp Neptune’s napping!” said Tom, as he watched the waves that played as lightly as a baby’s fingers with the sands upon the shore. Far out, the sea was blue as bluest ame- thyst; slowly circling toward the land the waves grew green and opaline; their jewels flashed a moment in the sun and were drawn back again into the sea. Miss Bremely, to whom Tom had spoken, seemed under the same spell as the ocean; her eyes held in their blue depths a dreamy look of peace; the sunshine touched her hair to gold, gave a glint of richness to brow and cheek, and fell in light caress upon her folded hands. She answered Tom with a smile, then rous- ing from her reverie, she said, “Our ocean is | for the nonce living up to Magellan's good opinions and to the name the old navigator ” gave it so long ago. ; 4 THE HALL OF SHELLS. Almost before her sentence was finished, Tom, who spied a stranger working a dip net down the beach, with true boyish instinct had sped away to the scene of interest. Still Miss Bremely mused in the hazy sun- shine, the water lapping lightly against the rock upon which she sat. Bending over its ledge she gathered tangles of sea kelp the waves laid at her feet. “Thank you, dear old Sea,” she said; “you are gentle and sing like a siren to-day; to-mor- row you may roar like an army of Titans. Ah, well, your calms and silvery tides are all the dearer to us because of your depths we can not fathom, your,storms we can not quell.” Kneeling upon the sand she bent her head until the incoming waves touched her forehead with their crystal chrism, then rising she took her hamper of shells and started along an as- cending pathway to a cottage not far distant among acacia trees. The cottage was her home. Turning from its main entrance she chose a winding flight of steps leading to a small balcony. There she paused before an open door and a childish voice greeted her with, “O Cousin Ellen, you look like a mer- maid !” FOUR PEOPLE AND THE HALL OF SHELLS. 5 Miss Bremely’s hands were filled with treasures from the beach and her cheeks flushed to the delicate tint of sea shells, while the kelp she had wound about her hat, trailing down, had caught in the loose wefts of her hair and fell in tangles of color over the gray folds of her gown. But far better than the charm of a mermaid was the gentle grace of a loving spirit which brought sunshine mto the room and joy to the child face that lay among the pillows. Following Miss Bremely came Tom. Tom was preciously human. There was no hint of mermen about him. His trousers were rolled to the knees and gave evidence of having been touched by the waves. He carried his hat piled with limpets, spirals, and shining aba- lones, while his many bulging pockets sug- gested scores of hidden treasures. | Undine, the child among the pillows, was Tom’s little sister.—though Undine was not her name at all. She was christened Gertrude. It had been her mother’s name, and seemed - to _ belong to the little girl whose cheerful spirit and gentle grace made her so like the swéet mother who had been borne away over the mystical seas by the same bark that brought the little girl to earth. Her father’s niece, Miss Bremely, was as mother and companion 6 THE HALL OF SHELLS. to the child, and, seeing her love for the sea, it was she who had called her Undine; and Un- dine she had become to every one saving her father. To him she was always Gertrude, and the name fell from his lips with a caressing tenderness as if he spoke to the sweet mother in heaven as well as to the child upon earth. . Tom’s little sister was as frail as he was sturdy, and to alleviate the child’s weariness when constrained to lie for months among her pulows, Miss Bremely wove her tales of the sea. At one time it was arune of the North- men, terrible with dragon ships, jétuns, and stormy seas, but beautiful with love and valor. At another it was a bit of classic lore made so simple and charming that Undine forgot her pain and longed for the time when she could read such wonderful stories herself. But even more fascinating than these were the descrip- tions of coral groves through which the Undine of Fouqué’s charming stories walked, and the gardens, fathoms down, where gay-tinted flow- ers of the sea unfolded their delicate frondlike branches, independent alike of sunshine and shower. She had wondered why such gardens grew far from any mortal sight, and Miss Bremely answered : FOUR PEOPLE AND THE HALL OF SHELLS. 7% “There may be eyes that read these gospels Other than the eyes of men.” — When the child was busy, one day, sorting her shells, Miss Bremely told her of Ossian’s lordly cave with its “hall of shells where kings and warriors feasted,” and Undine had asked that, because of her love for the sea and be- cause her name was that of a sea maiden, her room might be a hall of shells. Her cousin consented upon the conditions that Undine learn the names and what she could of the haunts and habits of her treasures. So Un- dine’s room, opening toward the ocean, became a little hall of shells, and those who loved her brought their treasures into it, until it was growing to look like an ocean cave or a mer- maid’s throne room, It was here that Miss Bremely and Tom came after their walk upon the strand. Miss Bremely placed her basket of shells upon a table by the bed, while Tom, with more devo- tion than discretion, dumped his dripping treas- ures upon the coverlet before his sister. Miss Bremely’s smothered “O Tom!” was unheard as Tom, with hands deep in his bulging pockets, exclaimed : “Old Pacific must have been thinking about you, Undine; our cove was full of 8 THE HALL OF SHELLS. shells. Guess I’ve found you some new ac- quaintances. Just look at that beauty—pink ‘as a flower! The new minister was down on the beach. He said that shell was a great trav- eler and had come from the tropic seas. “Undine, that minister knew me! Said he saw me at church. I didn’t s’pose ministers ever saw boys. Our other minister never did. I wouldn’t wonder if Dr. McLean—that’s the new minister’s name—knew ’most as much as Cousin Ellen does about the ocean and its in- habitants. He showed me where to look to find the mouth and stomach of a starfish; they are right handy together, I tell you! He says starfish are very fond of oysters. You wouldn’t s’pose they could open an oyster shell, would you? But they can; they just put that queer mouth of theirs close to the closed edge of the oyster shell and inject a bitter liquid into the shell; Mr. Oyster don’t like the dose and opens his valves, in walks the starfish and eats ‘oys- ter on the half shell’ without as much as a thank you! Dr. McLean says these starfish have a cousin that grows on a long stem like a flower. “See all these rainbow colors,” he con- tinued, displaying a brilliant Haliot’s. “Dr. McLean says the animal that lived in this shell FOUR PEOPLE AND THE HALL OF SHELLS. 9 had a heart and a digestive and nervous sys- tem. He told me what these little ‘portholes’ along the top are for, and showed me where to look to find a limpet’s eyes. “T never knew before that ministers cared about shells. I didn’t s’pose they could talk about much, ’cept ’Gyptians, Hebrews, and orig- inal sin!” After a moment’s pause, he added con- vincingly, “ Dr. McLean’s very interesting for a minister.” By this time Tom’s pockets were emptied, and Undine’s eyes sparkling over her treasures ; the strands of kelp, too, were untangled from Miss Bremely’s hat and hair. They proved to be very fine specimens, and were placed in a press to dry, with strips of muslin on either side to prevent their adhering to the paper of the press. THE MERMAID’S TEA SERVICE. Shells are at once the attraction of the untutored say- age, the delight of the refined artist, the wonder of the philosophic zoélogist, and most valued treasure of the geologist. They adorn the sands of the sea-girt isles and continents now; and they form the earliest “ footprints on the sands of time” in the history of our globe—Car- PENTER. ... Thave seen A curious child applying to her ear The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell, To which, in silence hushed, her very soul Listened intently and her countenance soon Brightened with joy ; for murmuring from within Were heard sonorous cadences, whereby, To her belief, the monitor expressed Mysterious union with its native sea. ‘WORDSWORTH. 12 IL. THE MERMAID’S TEA SERVICE. Nature reveals most wonderful secrets to those who love her. Wndine, bending over her treasures with glowing face, uttered many an exclamation of surprise and delight as she discovered new friends, or had charming se- -erets revealed to her from the lips of old. She amused herself by arranging upon her tray a score or more of shells, delicately tinted, fair and shining as the rarest china, and not very dissimilar in shape to many of the dainty dishes of the day. “Come, Cousin Ellen,” she exclaimed, “and. see my mermaid’s tea service !” “Others than the Nereids have eaten and drank from beautiful vessels like these,” said her cousin. “This,” she continued taking a shell from the tray, “is a Pecten, or scallop. One variety of Pecten served as a drinking cup in early times, and when the ancient chief- tain, Ossian, with his ler guests, ‘struck his 14 THE HALL OF SHELLS. sounding shells,’ and when in his hall the ‘shell of kings was heard,’ it was probably such scallop cups the warriors clashed. “ Another Pecten was called the pilgrim’s shell, and was used by the early Crusaders as both plate and goblet. This shell was some- times from four to five inches broad, and found in abundance on the coast of Palestine. It was also worn upon the front of the hat as a badge of knighthood by those who had performed the sacred pilgrimages or visited a shrine of St. James. This latter gave it the additional name of St. James’s shell, its proper name being Pecten Jacobeus. “The name Pecten means comb, and has been given these shells because of the appear- ance of ribs ornamenting the surface of many varieties. “But beautiful as are these shells, the mol- lusks living in such houses as these are even more beautiful and instructive. “By quick opening and shutting of its valves the little animal moves through the water. When ‘at home’ the pretty creature lies upon one side, its two valves open far enough to admit of our peering in; there we see delicate white fringes waving this way and that, withdrawn and again floating over the THE MERMAID’S TEA SERVICE. 15 edge of the shell. These are called tentacles, and among them can be discerned tiny and brilliant points which are shown by the lens to shine like diamonds, each rimmed in a setting of red. These are the eyes of the scallop, and Divine thought has protected them by the over- hanging shell rim as kindly and carefully as human eyes are shielded. “We sometimes find the bright yellow eggs of this little animal, looking not unlike the roe of some fishes, but carefully deposited among the ruffles of the interior. “The dainty dishes of your tea service are not all Pectens, however ; here are limpets tinted and polished above the most famous china. Patelle, or limpets, are found in many varie- ties ; one upon the western coast of South Amer- ica is a foot in diameter, and often serves as a dish. Indeed the name Patella signifies a dish. “One is called the ‘cup-and-saucer limpet’ because of the cuplike formation in the inte- rior of the saucerlike shell. Another here upon your tray is called the ‘keyhole limpet’ on account of the tiny aperture you see in the apex of the shell. “Shells of this family have long been used as ornaments as well as dishes. Necklaces 16 THE HALL OF SHELLS. have been strung of them, and such are found in some of the most ancient sepulchers. “When you are well enough to go down to the beach. you will wonder at the power of adhesion possessed by these little limpets, for it is impossible to remove them from the rocks without breaking their shells unless they are surprised by sudden seizure. “Some authorities say this is owing to the large round foot of the Patella, which is very muscular and possessed of a viscous secretion which aids it as a sucker. The perfectly even edge of the shell keeps it tight against the rock, while ‘the power of treating a vacuum’ —a problem too old for your young head— is said also to enter into the operation. Others attribute the adhesion to no muscular action, but chiefly to the ‘invisible glue which exudes from the granulated base of the sole of its foot,’ as the expansion upon which the ani- mal moves is called. We find upon removing one of these little creatures from the rocks that a sticky secretion is left where the limpet clung. This gluelike substance is soon dis- solved by the action of the sea water. “A weight of from twenty-eight to thirty pounds has been suspended from the shell of a limpet attached to a stone; the weight was THE MERMAID'S TEA SERVICE. 17 sustained by the plucky little animal for some seconds, Whatever theory may be correct in accounting for the strength with which these little creatures cling to their rocky home, we can wholly agree with Wordsworth who wrote: “ Should the strongest arm endeavor ~ The limpet from its rock to sever, Tis seen its loved support to clasp With such tenacity of grasp, We wonder that such strength should dwell In such a small and simple shell! “When the water covers his weather-worn dome, the limpet does a-walking go; but always returns to the same spot upon the rock and re- mains fixed while the tides are out, as its gills were never made for breathing air. When the rocks are soft, the little limpet wears away not only his ‘door stone,’ but its circular little dome reposes in a cavity which its muscular foot scoops out, and which the shell exactly fits. “ Who would guess this silent little creature possessor of a tongue-twice as long as its shell? Stranger still, this ribbonlike tongue is fur. nished with rows of teeth. The Patella vulgaris of the British Isles has one hundred and sixty rows of teeth upon its tongue, and twelve teeth in a row, making its entire ‘set’ to consist of Missing Page Missing Page LISTENING TO THE SMOOTH-LIPPED SHELL. TRITON VARIEGATUS., THE MERMAID’S TEA SERVICE. 19 sea shouts and laughs and beckons to me, even my shells are full of sea songs;” and she held a chambered shell to her ear, talking of its plaintive murmur, so like the breaking of waves upon a far-off coast. A few minutes later she was asleep, the shell still held to her ear, and a smile upon her lips—a sign of the pleasantness of her voyage over sleep’s mysterious sea. This is what she saw: A quaint little crea- ture came up out of.the waves and stood upon the sand. It looked like a bit of a crumpled veil, a weird little wraith made up of frills and ruffles, but with a foot so large as to sug- gest a mistake had been made in the adjust- ment. Undine, with her love for all manner of sea tenants, smiled a welcome, then waited curiously, uncertain what might be the next propriety in view of her guest being incognito. Presently a voice, finer than the vibration of a spider’s silken string, came to Undine between the noise of the waves, and the little visitor announced : “ T built that pearly palace you are holding in your hand; 7 painted its walls and tinted the ceiling of - chambers. It was my home for years, how many you can tell by counting the 20 THE HALL OF SHELLS. thickened varices upon its surface, each of which marks a year of my life and the season of rest that came to me after my toils. I pride myself no one could have fashioned a fairer dwelling, and when at length I was torn from it I left its halls filled with memories. Those smallest coils echo with the songs of life’s morning; its joys as well as its sorrows are all repeated there. Upon one side you may see a pearly scar. It was there that a borer pierced my walls while the shell was yet tender. The thrills of horror of that moment still haunt those small chambers. Rescue came and I lived to mend the broken wall, but you will see the scar remains. “Later the walls of my citadel were again pierced and the horrible borer once more sought my life; but again I was delivered. This time I had grown too large for these small chambers, and if you will carefully ex- amine the interior of my house you will see a partition is built shutting off the broken and outgrown chambers. Those are painful memo- ries, and mingled with the merrier music in the coils you may hear cries that are wild and plaintive. “Upon the island sands where I was cast I once heard a wise man say, ‘Sorrow gives some THE MERMAID’S TEA SERVICE. a1 of the sweetest strains to life’s music.’ I do not know. You may listen and learn for yourself, “The next room is filled with the singing of sirens and laughter of sea nymphs as they leap from crag to crag under the sea. If you listen well you may catch, too, the sigh of a sailor boy as he fell asleep. “The outer whirls and the vestibule re- tain the pleasant murmur of winds through palms and spice trees of a sea-girt island, the pleasant lapping of waves upon the sand, and the laughter of bathers in the surf. Through all and above all is heard the ceaseless roar of the ocean. “T can not explain to you the mysterious union between myself and my native sea, whereby sighs and sobbings as from a heart oppressed become forever my heritage. “But the gray old sea has a secret, a mys terious and terrible sorrow. By the thought of it he is transformed, and white with rage he breaks rocks to atoms and tears continents ir his fury. Again he falls to sobbing so piteous- ly that we all sob with him. The secret of his sorrow is a long, sad tale; but I will tell it to you, and why he moans and raves, why he sobs and sighs. Listen!” 22 THE HALL OF SHELLS. At this up sped a white wave from the sea. It caught the little ruffled and frilled wraith of the shell, and with a single sweep drew her into its darkest depths, out of sight forever. A limpet, Patella vulgata, with its dome- like house, is shown in our engraving, in which are also the sea snails and the razor-shell. The illustration of the Palmer or Pilgrim shows the manner in which scallop shells were worn as badges of a holy knighthood. An empty St. James’s shell—Pecten Jacobeus— lies in the left foreground of the picture, while in the right is a shell with its living inmate, displaying the delicate fringelike tentacles as seen playing lightly in the water when the valves of the shell are slightly opened. Between these lies a Husus or spindle shell, well named—long, slender, thin-lipped, and without varices. Upon each side are arranged several species of Serpula, which look like little stone ser- pents with their plumed and crimson crests. Annelids they are, their shelly, twisted tubes twining round and fastening themselves upon shells, stones, and other submarine objects, sometimes completely covering them. The dwellers in these calcareous, contorted tubes ire eo PILGRIM WEARING HIS BADGE OF KNIGHTHOOD. THE MERMAID’S TEA SERVICE. 93 are themselves gay with color; indeed, the sea folk in general delight in rich and delicate hues, if we may judge from their beautifully painted bedies and dwellings. The tubelike homes which these gay sea worms inhabit, are of their own construction from lime and cement which their bodies se- crete, and each is furnished with a curious door which the owner of the fortress is able to close upon the slightest alarm with lightning rapidity. The different varieties of Serpula are inter- esting and attractive embellishments to our aquariums, and the marvelous arrangement of delicate membranes and muscular fibers of these extremely sensitive organisms well repay our study. The beggar wears thy purple as his own. Miss MULOCK. Who would be A mermaid fair, Singing alone, Combing her hair Under the sea, In a golden curl With a comb of pearl ? TENNYSON. 26 III. PURPURAS.—MUREXES. Looxrne over the shells upon the table, Miss Bremely found a pretty tuberculated shell of the Muricide family. She told Undine its name—Purpura emarginata. “Tt has a pretty relative,” said Miss Breme- ly, “which is used by the South Sea Islanders as a drinking cup, and both belong to that famous family which yielded the royal purple dye anciently so highly prized by those who wore ‘soft raiment’ and dwelt in ‘kings’ houses.’ “'The dye was a colorless fluid which became purple upon exposure to the sun; it was but a drop, and secreted in a veinlike sac near the head of the little Mwrex. No wonder that purple stuffs were costly, being valued, we are told, as high as two hundred dollars a pound. “To-day, beside the ruined city which gave its name to these purples, lie other ruins—piles 4 27 28 THE HALL OF SHELLS. of shattered homes of the Murex trunculus or Tyrian rock shell. “The centuries have preserved a pretty story celebrating the origin of this industry— the coloring of purple. It has an idyllic charm, and brings the people of that old city, whose crest was a Purpura shell, near enough to be our kin. A pretty Tyrian maiden, so runs the tale, was tripping along the sea sands ; her pet was a dog that sported at her side; in his play he took.a shell in his mouth and crushed it; soon the dog’s white hair was dashed with the richest purple. The pretty maiden had a lover whom no undertaking daunted ; she sliowed to him the beautiful color upon the hair of her pet, and begged that she might have a robe of the same rich hue. Not many days thereafter the hero-lover brought the pretty maiden the first robe of royal purple ever worn. “Other members of this family have also furnished the purple dye. At one place in southern Greece there is a little ‘mountain of shells’ of the Murex brandaris, crushed for their purple. Several of the Purpuras were similarly used. Both Murices and Purpuras feed upon mollusks, boring through their shells with their hard-toothed proboscis. They are a numerous family, and at home in all seas, THE LEGEND OF THE TYRIAN DYE. -——----— THE COMB OF PEARL. PURPURAS—MUREXES. 29 though the largest and most beautiful are found in the tropics. “The regularly arranged spines upon many of the shells of this family give them a curious and to some varieties a very beautiful appear- ance. The ‘black murex’ (Murex radix), with its decorations like fringes of brown and black, comes from the tropics, and is a beautiful shell. Its rival, however, is the ‘rose murex’ (Murex palma-rose) from Ceylon, bordered with rich- est brown and lined with delicate rose. “ The ‘woodcock shell’ (A/urex tennispina) is a singular, spiny variety of Murex, with a long and slender beak. It is called Venus’s comb. This and the following one are the shells the poets call the ‘comb of pearl,’ and sing of how with it the mermaid “Sits on diamond rocks, Sleeking her soft, alluring locks. Murex tribulus, found in the Indian seas, has a pearly shell with very thin, regular, and elon- gated spines.” Where the mermaid is seen in our picture combing her hair with her comb of pearl, the beautiful Murex tennispina is the “comb”; and the large number of long, parallel curved spines and the recurved shorter ones with 30 THE HALL OF SHELLS. which it is adorned are plainly seen at the bottom of that page, where is the larger illus- tration of the same shell. The Murex princeps is the spiny shell shown among the olive and cone shells. It is: : a beautiful variety, found upon the west coast of South America, is sometimes five inches in length. Its ribs are white, contrasting beauti- fully with its spines and shadings of chestnut brown. The Muricide, however, are not all regarded as lovely. It is a Murex which is one of the worst enemies of the oyster, piercing its shell and sucking the sweet juices from within. So voracious is this depredator that a large num- ber of the bivalves are often required to fur- nish it a single meal, the young Murex select- ing the young oyster shells, which are most easily pierced, while the old Murex feasts upon the large oysters, finding the labor of boring through their hard shells but whets its appe- tite for more. The oyster farms in some parts of Europe are only preserved by fishers being employed incessantly to destroy these depre- dators. MICROSCOPIC SHELLS. Nothing imperfect or deficient left Of all that He created. MILTON. Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God ; But only he who sees takes off his shoes. Mrs. BROWNING, 82 IV. MICROSCOPIC SHELLS. Tue sand among the shells was brushed into a tray, and with a microscope Undine found it contained tiny shells with colors and coils equaling even the large spirals and irides- cent abalones which had so taken 'Tom’s fancy. Miss Bremely told her that in a pound of sand taken from the Adriatic, by computation two hundred thousand individuals were found ; many more must have suffered wreck from the rough tossing and rubbing of the waves and sand. In an ounce of sand from Cape May it was estimated over thirty-five thousand indi- viduals of a single species were discovered. She was told that the sands of some beaches are composed almost entirely of shells, vari- ously and perfectly formed, while the compli- cated organisms and harmonious contrivances of the animals inhabiting them must fill the beholder with amazement. Undine sat for a long time picking one 33 84 THE HALL OF SHELLS. speck after another out of the sand, her aston- ishment and delight ever increasing as she found such tiny spirals beautifully polished or - clear as glass, with every coil perfect. Baby bivalves were there with carvings so delicate only a strong glass could trace them. From some of the shells finest of threadhke feelers protruded, showing such living atoms as per- fect and as wonderful as are the houses they inhabit. “O Cousin Ellen!” she exclaimed, as the revelation overwhelmed her, “ how precious our world must be to God! He has crowded even its unseen places with such beauty and made so perfect, things no human eye can see!” “His wonderful works teach of him with- out whom ‘was not anything made that was made,’” replied her cousin. “In them he gives us glimpses of his character.” In his creations, ‘never more great than when mi- nutely great,’ he shows us his love for what is perfect—the beautiful we callit. He keeps these examples everywhere before us, as if he would lure us to love what is perfect and to become such ourselves.” JANTHINA.—TRITONIA. Walled by ranks of steadfast giants, Fringed by leagues of shining sea. Anon. Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea, Or hear old Triton blow his wreathéd horn. ‘WORDSWORTH. 36 Vv. IANTHINA.—TRITONIA. In another land—beloved of the Bremelys —it was winter. In their California home the petals of flowers fell light as snowflakes, and the roaring of the ocean was to them in place of the tumult of the north wind. To the east of them blue mountains en- camped, with their feet among flowers and their broad shoulders to the siroccos that swept over the plain. Mr. Bremely hoped in this valley of flowers, roses might flush his little daughter’s cheeks, where through all the ten years of her life only lilies had bloomed. At the close of his busy days her room was the sacred spot to which he hastened, and while he bent over her couch or her golden head rested upon his shoulder, he looked with a longing that was pain, for signs of coming strength which physicians had prophesied might follow this sojourn by the sea. 38 THE HALL OF SHELLS. Every evening the child rejoiced in receiy- ing some simple token of the love that had filled his thoughts all day. Sometimes it was fruit grown mellow and sweet in California’s amber sun, or a cluster of roses fragrant as love. This evening of which we write a box of shells was before her, and her father rejoiced in seeing her eyes sparkle as the eyes of happy children who are well. She took a long, pointed shell from the box, exclaiming, “Cousin Ellen, papa has brought me a sea horn to call my mermaids to their banquet!” And placing the shell to her lips’ she blew mimic rounds upon her horn until a flush came into her cheeks, and seeing it her father’s eyes were dim for joy. “You pretty purple thing,” she said, as she selected another shell from the collection her father had brought her, “are you a shell at all, I wonder, or are you a sea violet?” The greater part of the shell that she held in her hand was purple as the veins in her wrist, but to add to its delicate beauty the spire was shaded to white. “ Tanthina fragilis is its name, or the ‘sea snail’ it is sometimes called,” said her Cousin Ellen. “It is one of the daintiest and most IANTHINA.—TRITONIA. 89 fragile things that sails the seas. Its thin, pellucid, gossamerlike shell can not bear the rough handling of the waves. The snail that lives in this amethystine house swims by means of an air float secreted by and attached to its foot. To the under side of this float the ege capsules are securely fastened, and here the baby Zanthina is ‘born to the purple.’ “Your trumpet shell is a Zritonda, and in- stead of sounding for a banquet, mythology says the Tritons who lived in a golden palace at the bottom of the sea often blew it at com- mand of Neptune to soothe the restless waves.” “T have read that the largest of these trumpet shells are used as tea kettles by the people of the Typinsan Archipelago,” said Mr. Bremely. “The shell has a wire or thong at- tached to each extremity, and is hung upon a hook above the fire. The operculum is the lid of this artistic tea kettle, while the spire serves as its spout.” “We might imagine sea gods resenting this common use of their ‘wreathed horn,’ and “To the smooth, bright sand beguiled, raising a ‘tempest in the tea kettle,” laughed Miss Bremely. “On the contrary,” replied her uncle, “I 40 THE HALL OF SHELLS. fancy the shell that has been honored in my- thology, painted by artists, and sung in poet's lays, now appreciating the beauty there is in homely use, and when the fire is on and the water hot, sending forth sweeter songs than when at the mouth of even Neptune’s trump- eter himself.” The scientific name of this artistic tea kettle is Triton tritonis. Another variety, smaller but beautifully variegated and mottled, is the Triton varie- gatus, whose habitat is the tropic sea in vicinity of the Philippine Islands. SEA SECRETS. When bearded mists divide, Leave another’s eyes and fetch your own. EMERSON. What swimmeth below When the tide comes in ? Anon. 42 VI. SEA SECRETS. Weexs passed quickly into months. Every hour was charmed. Undine no longer spent the long golden days among her pillows, but with rounded cheeks and lips growing red as cherries she grew each week more and more like the rich roses and sun-kissed fruits of that happy valley. As for Tom, his interest in the sea and in min- isters steadily deepened. He spent many hours upon the beach with ever-increasing delight, often in company with the new minister. “Dr. McLean don’t feed a fellow on the bare bones of wisdom,” he assured Undine. “He tells just what one wants to know, and makes it so plain a poor chap like me under- stands what he’s talking about. I’m s’prised that ministers know so much about such inter- esting things.” “Cousin makes things very plain, and tells 5 43 44 THE HALL OF SHELLS. charming stories, too, about the sea,” ventured Undine. “Oh, course Cousin Ellen’s nice,” responded Tom; “but she can’t go out and dig in the shoals and dredge and dip like the doctor.” Undine had no desire to depreciate their good friend, for she, like Tom, had learned to love him dearly, and was greatly interested in what he told them of the old sea’s secrets. Dr. McLean was a faithful pastor and a diligent student. His hours upon the strand were his recreation, and the little dip net and improvised dredge brought up for him many things other than helices and hydroids, To him the ocean with its vivid and changing pages was full of the thoughts of God, and he went down to its study reverently, with the thought in his heart, “The sea is his and he made it,” and it thus became to him full of sweet sermonry. To the boy and girl whose lessons had been tossed to them by the waves in the shape of shells and seaweeds, these implements—the dip net and the dredge—opened a new world of wonders. To the ignorant, the brine and mud in the trawl would have disclosed only wrig- gling bits of transparency, tiny beads of glass, opaque or shining, atoms of quicksilver, and SEA SECRETS. 45 wisps of nothingness; but science detected hydroids, delicate scalaria, worm cases, salpe, infant scallops, and marvels of embroidered embryo known only to science. The most precious and promising of these in jars of sea water awaited honorable investigation, while as to the remainder, with a flat rock serving for their table, the three strained and stirred, mag- nified and marveled over the common looking sand and muddy looking mud, “the maximum of interest being reached,” Cousin Ellen de- clared, “when a boy actually forgot the de- mands of his own stomach in investigating the stomach of a stomapod !” When the auspicious day dawned in which the treasures waiting in their tanks of sea water were to give up their secrets, the teacher and the children sat at a long table with strainers, saucers, pincers, and microscopes before them, while expectation and delight were upon their faces. After examining and explaining several minute organisms and admiring delicate and snow-white scalaria, so small as to tax the mi- croscope and yet perfect in every convolution, “This,” said the man of science, extricating from its muddy cradle an atom of transpar- ency, “is the Sapphirina ovatolanceolata.” 46 THE HALL OF SHELLS. “Oh, please drop his baptismal name,” in. terrupted Tom. “Can’t see such a little chap if he has a whole alphabet piled up before him !” ‘When the small individual with the dis. tinguished name was arranged for inspection the doctor explained: “It is one of the glow- worms that at night fringe the waves with gold or hang their lamps in the coral groves and the seaweed gardens.” His listeners were eager for another of the fairy tales of science, and he continued: “ Beautiful as are the ocean depths by the light of day, it is left for night to reveal marvels of beauty and _ brilliancy transcending the most vivid and gorgeous of earthly panoramas. _ “Tt is not strange that fairy lore and tales of wonder ascribe to the sea charmed gardens and palaces glittering with gold and gems. Even their wealth of imagery fails to picture the brilliancy of the scene when under the canopy of night a strange carnival of light begins. The sea, then, has no dark and shadowy cor- ners. Unattractive little brown beings scarce- ly noticed before, are changed as by magic into flowers of fire and fruit of gold upon the branching coral trees. Sea anemones hang their gorgeous blossoms over the reefs or wave SHA SHUKMLD. 47 their mimic rose-hued petals in what seems a gentle breeze. Dainty fronded ‘sea ferns,’ too delicate it would appear to bear their own weight, are strung with what look like jeweled beads, or hung with infinitesimal electric lamps that burn and flash with imtensest brilliancy. “Under such floods of phosphorescent light the pink and purple of the seaweeds take on more vivid tints, and what was brown before grows rich-hued as tints of autumn are. “Upon ‘the diamond ledges that jut from these dells,’ the self-luminous Meduse and mi- croscopic crustaceans seem signaling to each other by lights of every hue which flicker and wane but to flash again with brighter glow.” A PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR. God hath so many ships upon the seas! His are the merchantmen that carry treasures, The men-of-war, all bannered gallantly, The little fisher boats, and barks of pleasure— On all this sea of time there is not one That sailed without his glorious name thereon. CaRL SPENCER. Beneath the sunlit wave she swims concealed By her own brightness ; only now revealed To sage’s eye that gazes with delight On things invisible to vulgar sight. DRUMMOND. 50 | AAT TA ear SYA Id bu “ ONE-SEATED SHALLOPS WHOSE BOATMEN HAVE DEPARTED,” VIL A PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR,. THE MEDUS.F FAMILY. “A PortuguEse man-of-war has been stranded below on the beach,” announced Mr. Bremely, one evening upon his return home. “Tt will pay you all to go down and see it.” Tom hastened to impart the information to Dr. McLean, who promised to join the excur- sion in the morning. He came and met Un- dine with the words: “I have brought a Crepi- dula in which to convey our Aphrodite to the scene of interest; it would be too long a walk for her.” Undine laughingly answered: “I know what a Crepidula is! I have some of the shells in my cabinet; they look like fairy boats with a seat in one end, and Cousin Ellen told me they had been called ‘one-seated shallops whose boatmen had departed.’ You mean I am to ride in something nice; but why call me Aphro- dite? I don’t know about that long word.” 51 52 THE HALL OF SHELLS. “ Aphrodite,” explained the doctor, “was a maiden lovely and loving, whom the old Greeks said sprang from the foam of the sea: her car was represented as drawn by a dove or a spar- row or sometimes a swan. Who or what will keep us company and be like the dove or the swan I’m sure I don’t know.” “Cousin Ellen is like a dove,” lovingly whispered Undine. Dr. McLean glanced across at the gentle lady in the soft gray gown, and the expression upon his face told that he agreed with Undine. Tom questioned, “ What kind of a boat is the Portuguese man-of-war? I can see neither steam nor sail along our beach,” he added dis- appointedly. “We shall find our craft none the less,” re- plied Dr. McLean. After passing down the beach for some dis- tance Tom suddenly darted toward the water’s edge, shouting: “The loveliest tangles of sea- weed! All colors!” “Tom, stop! Don’t touch that!” exclaimed Dr. McLean in a voice so stern and command- ing that Tom stopped at once, startled and troubled. He never had heard the minister speak with such severity before. Coming to Tom’s side the party now saw a singularly A PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR. 53 beautiful object stranded, just low enough to be washed over by the waves. Long ribbon- like streamers and fringes, purple and rosy pink, floated out for yards beyond its richly colored body. Dr. McLean explained that the Portuguese man-of-war was a jellyfish be- longing to the class Acelephe, which means nettles, many members of this class possessing a stinging power which makes the name appro- priate. “Tom,” he continued, “those beautiful threadlike filaments, which at a glance you took for seaweeds, are filled with little cells, and each cell is a tiny armory where its death-dealing weapon is kept. If you had touched but one of those beautifully fringed appendages, even very softly, every little cell thus touched would have burst open, thrusting its poison-charged weapon into your flesh. “These poison-filled tentacles are its weapons of defense and are also used in obtaining its food. The sea animal wounded by a sting from these lasso cells soon dies and is devoured by this singular creature. “The home of the Portuguese man-of-war is in the tropics, and only occasionally does one drift so far into the colder currents. Another day we will return and see how much is left of this gay privateer. 54 THE HALL OF SHELLS. “The whole Medusw family are very curi- ous and interesting, but none more so than the Physalia—our acquaintance of to-day,” con. tinued the doctor, losing no opportunity of instructing the children, who were delighted with the tales he told then. “Instances of the stinging powers of this inoffensive-looking crea- ture are given, which show that Tom may con- gratulate himself that he was prompt in obey- ing orders. There is a story told of a young sailor who, attracted as Tom was by the beauty of this jellyfish, sprang to the sea to capture it as it passed near the ship. When he reached it the creature entangled him in its threadlike filaments; in an agony of pain he cried for help and had barely been drawn on to the vessel when the intensity of the inflammation pro- duced by the stings of these tentacles occa- sioned brain fever. “The different members of this family in- habit all seas. Some of them are very large, reaching to two feet across the disk, with their tentacular appendages extending like threads of many colors; others of diminutive size float in immense shoals, and with. their phospho- rescence illumine the sea till every wave is ‘a flash of golden fire. There seems no end to the number and variety of these brilliant little A PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR. 55 creatures resembling drops of animated ice, tiny crystals of jelly, or floating jewels. Close study reveals in them organisms quite as mar- velous as are possessed by sea beauties of larger growth. Some looking like translucent glob- ules are furnished with bands of membranous fins or pellucid paddles whose ever-varying mo- tion, under the play of light upon their glitter- ing surfaces, gives them all the hues of a prism. “Others are like fairy umbrellas of clearest crystal dotted with yellow specks along the margin; these the sages say are eyes. Fring- ing tentacles, more than a dozen times the length of the disk, float about them and shim- mer like threads of fine-spun glass. To com- plete the fairylike umbrella the queer little stomach of the medusa hangs like a tiny handle from its center with the knoblike mouth at its extremity. Through the trans- parent canals we can see what this medusa had for breakfast and watch the process of digestion. “The helpful lens enables us to trace the jellyfish through all its ghttering transitions— from the egg or gemmule to the time when, tired of a sedentary, budding existence, it re- turns to the ‘original type’ and shoots off in- dependently. 56 THE HALL OF SHELLS. “The immense shoals of these microscopic animals not only help at night to produce what is called the ‘phosphorescent sea,’ but by the light of day give their color to the waves. Thus the variety known as ‘whale food’ red- den the sea for miles, and when whalers per- ceive their ruddy hue upon the waves they realize they have reached the ‘pastures of the whales.’” By this time their walk had ended and Tom announced his “think tank full.” When the party again visited the spot where they had left the Portuguese man-of-war, the chil- dren could find no trace of their singular ac- quaintance, and but for wiser companions would have returned home in disappointment. They were shown, however, several filmy ob- jects, scarcely more than an inch across, flat, flabby, and semitransparent. These they learned were the air sacs of their jellyfish, and were told that even a medusa, weighing several pounds and with many yards of tentacles, when he dropped his “mortal coil” left only sea water and air sacs; these latter Tom presented to Undine as “the skeleton of the Portuguese man-of-war.” The colony of Hydroids growing about a truncated harp shell in our engraving gives a HypDRoIDS AND JELLY-FISH. A PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR. 57 very good idea of the delicacy and beauty of some of these organisms, while above the Hy- droids and the harp shell float what look like shimmering balloons, airy, fairy enough to bear “sylphs and fays beyond the moon.” These are jellyfish—MJeduse—first pro- duced as buds upon the Hydroid, where they enlarge, until at length they become detached and float away. Some Hydroids cast upon our sea beaches and preserved in collections might be taken for seaweeds, they are so delicate, were it not for their horny external coverings. PEARLS.—MOTHER-OF-PEARL. The cockelle, with heavenly dew so clene Of kynde, engendereth white pearls rounde. Old poem. When we see such forms as these we hardly like to think that they are secreted by some slimy mollusk, but would imagine that the mermaids tear off pieces of the rainbows where they touch the sea, and carry them to the cold depths to congeal them into shells—H. A. Ward's Catalogue of Species. 60 WII. PEARLS.—MOTHER-OF-PEARL. F'ascrnaTING as was microscopic study, Tom lost none of his admiration for the abalones, so lustrous and iridescent, while Undine looked for seed pearls in every bivalve that came into her hands. Dr. McLean told them the pearly lining of the abalones was called mother-of-pearl, or nacré, while true pearls were the product of different bivalves, the best “solidified drops of dew,” as the Orientals call them—being found in the pearl oyster (.lvdcula margari- tifera). “ According to an ancient fable,” continued the doctor, “oysters rose to the surface of the water, opened their shells, and received the drops of dew which were speedily transformed to ‘white pearls rounde.’ In recognition of this fable Thomas Moore wrote: “Precious their tears as rain from the sky That turns into pearls as it falls in the sea. 61 62 THE HALL OF SHELLS. “ Another theory has been that pearls were always the result of a grain of sand or some irritating substance entering the shell; the ani- mal, unable to discharge it, converted it into a pearl. Hence we are told: “Learn from yon Orient shell to love thy foe, And strew with pearls the hand that brings thee woe. This is beautifully suggestive, yet seems to be only haif the story. While irritating sub- stances are known to be covered by nacre it is believed all pearls are not the result of irrita- tion, but are secreted by the mollusk and held ready to be dissolved by powerful acids, which are also of the animal’s secretion, for spreading over openings made in their shells by the borer. “Injured shells are often found with their points of irritation covered with thin lamina- tions of this nacreous matter. “ Pearl fishers. tell us the little pearl maker is, sometimes at least, able to expel his jewel at will, and often does so when captured ; un- derstanding this, the fisher places his hand over the shell so as to close its valves or secure the pearl if ejected. “ After possessing himself of all the pearls in old mussels—the old being the most produce: tive—the gatherer sometimes deposits the mol- PEARLS.—MOTHER OF PEARL. 63 lusks in safe and convenient coves where he may gather the pearls for several years in suc- cession from the same shells. “ The Chinese, understanding the ability of these pearl mussels to cover hard substances with their fluid secretion, which soon hardens into mother-of-pearl, or nacre, bring their wiles to bear upon a species of fresh-water mussel— the Unio Hyria—compelling it to manufacture pearls to their order. “They keep the little Unio in tanks, and place small shot, bits of shell, and other sub- stances between the mantle and the valve; these particles are soon converted into pearls by the industrious little gem maker. “They carry their ‘ways that are dark’ still further, and by means of the work of the innocent little Unio they impose upon the credulous and superstitious minds of their people. They insert a metal image of their god Buddha within the valves of the mussel, and in process of time it becomes coated with the nacreous secretion and—presto !—the im- age of Buddha in pearl and adhering to the shell of a mussel! The image commands a good price and promises great advantage to the ignorant dupe who sees in it an unanswerable affirmation of Buddha’s divinity. 64 THE HALL OF SHELLS. “The pearl oyster which produces the finest pearls of all the pearl-growing bivalves is found at considerable depth in large shoals in the Indian Ocean, Gulf of Persia, some parts of the Pacific Ocean, etc. About thirty thou- sand people find employment in the pear! fish- eries of the Persian Gulf alone. “ As many as one hundred and fifty pearls have been gathered from a single shell. “Among the other bivalves producing pearls is the Pinna or wing-shell, the valves of which are often two feet long; the best known variety is the P. nobilis, which inhabits the Mediterranean, and is especially curious on account of its byssus. “Another singular variety is the ham- mer oyster—Malleus vulgaris—whose ham- mer-shaped shell is beautifully laminated with mother-of-pearl. “But Tom must hear about his beautiful abalones,” said the doctor, seeing he held sev- eral in his hands. “This rainbow shell belongs to the family Haliotide, of which there are many species, named according to their slight variations and the localities which they inhabit. “ Abalone—the name which we upon this California coast familiarly use—is a name the -PRODUCING SHELLS, PEARL PEARLS.—MOTHER OF PEARL. 65 early Spanish settlers gave, and is of doubtful meaning. “Shells of this family have their center of distribution in Australian and adjacent seas. Quantities abound upon the coast of Japan, where they are known as ‘Awabdi.’ Other names by which they are often called are ear- shell, green ear, Omer shell, ete. “ Haliotis splendens and H. tuberculata are the names science has given to the beauties you have in your hands, Tom. “ An enormous traffic is carried on in these shells so useful in delicate inlaying, in lacquer, and other ornamental work. The animals in- habiting these palaces are considerably sought after for food, while fine pearls have been found within the mantle of some. The irides- cent tints of these shells are produced by the fluid secretion with which the interior of the shells are lined; this hardens quickly and be- comes nacre, presenting a beautifully smooth and polished surface to the tender body of the animal within. They are also due to the ex- cessively thin laminations, irregularly overlap- ping, laid on in delicate semitransparent films. The thinner the laminations of this nacre mem- brane the more transparent, and hence the more lustrous and beautiful, the shell. 66 THE HALL OF SHELLS. “You are aware, Tom, with what tenacity these abalones cling to the rocks, so they can only be removed by taking the little house- holder unawares and giving dextrous and sud- den knocks.” “Yes,” said Tom, “the people here tell of a Chinaman who, putting his fingers under one of these shells in his attempt to pry it from the rock, was held there by the abalone until the tide came up and the man was drowned.” “This tight hugging of the rock,” ex- plained the doctor, “is accounted for, I believe, by the large suckerlike sole of the animal. It consists of a rounded disk of muscular tissue, which has marvelous power of adhesion and brings not a little atmospheric pressure to bear upon the shell. Like the limpet, it has a very viscous secretion, which is a strong factor in holding it to the rock. “The apertures along its dome suggest round windows high up in some old castle wall. They are the openings through which the gills of the animal are kept in communica- tion with the surrounding water. The earlier openings you see are closed—filled up with shelly matter—but some are always kept open.” As the doctor laid down the abalones, Un- PEARLS.—MOTHER OF PEARL. 67 dine, with a womanly penchant for the dainty and delicate, reverted to pearls, twirling the while a ring upon her finger and displaying the soft luster, the purity, and slight transpar- ency of its pearly setting. “I have read,” she said, “ that Cleopatra once dissolved and drank a pearl. In the story she was called very beau- tiful, but I can not see how a woman so fool- ish and vain could have been very beautiful.” “Yet it is true,” replied Dr. McLean; “her beauty and power to charm so influ- enced rulers and warriors that it has been said if Cleopatra’s nose had been half an inch longer (so spoiling her beauty) the history of the world would have been different! “Nevertheless science is not a little skep- tical about the pearl which it is recorded she dissolved and drank. It was one of a pair and was valued at one hundred and fifty thousand golden crowns. It is now affirmed upon excel- lent authority that so large a pearl could not have been dissolved except by means of a pow- erful acid, and so large a quantity would have been required that it could never have been drank with impunity. “The mate to this pearl, so the authorities say, was sawn in twain by order of the Em- peror Severus and dedicated to Venus, being 68 THE HALL OF SHELLS. used in decorating her statue in the Parthe- non. “ Nevertheless the dissolving and drinking of such a costly draught would scarcely have surpassed the extravagancies indulged in by the ancient nations of wealth. Fabulous sums were paid for pearls, and they were used with greatest prodigality. Whole crowns were made of them ; idols and images were studded and encrusted with them; and they were wrought into the most delicate and beautiful of fabrics. The earliest records concerning the use of gems among the ancient Babylonians, Egyp- tians, and Persians show that pearls were re- garded as among the richest gifts of Nature. By the Romans the mania for their possession was even greater. “Mithradates, the formidable opponent of the Romans, as you were reading this morning, was also not only a lover of wars, but a con- siderable lover of the arts as well. When he was conquered by Pompey and his magnificent collection of gems was taken, quantities of pearls were found, some of them wrought into most exquisite and elaborate designs. Among them was a portrait of the king himself cun- ningly fashioned entirely of pearls in mosaic. “The settings of your ring, Undine,” said PEARLS.—MOTHER OF PEARL. 69 the doctor, seeing the little girl still twirling the pearls upon her finger, “are white and lus- trous and have the polish that pertains to the very finest pearls. It has been suggested that this wonderful polish and perfection of luster which art can not imitate, may have been caused by the continued friction of the soft body of the oyster. “We hold such pearls as these in the high- est esteem, but, since there is no accounting for tastes, we find the inhabitants of some other countries differ from us in their estimation of these gems. We have been accustomed to think of pearls as white alone, and we have thought of them as Nature’s expression of purity. This is not the case with all admirers of pearls. The people of India and of China, for example, see greater beauty in those of a bright yellow color, while others prefer those that are pink. Pink pearls, as they are called, are not all pink, but range in hue from pink to red or even pale yellow or a dull dead white. They are generally neither very beautiful nor very perfect. Others of a black or leaden-gray color are also sometimes met with, and when perfect and of a good shape are highly valued. “As you already know, the Pacific Ocean yields a rich harvest of these gems, and it 70 THE HALL OF SHELLS. seems highly probable that the regions of Cali- fornia and Panama were known to the ancient inhabitants of America as rich fisheries. The hearts of Cortes and his followers were fired with anticipation and with envy when they saw the wealth of gems, many of them pearls, with which the draperies of the wealthy Aztecs were embroidered and fringed, and their gold and feather work sprinkled with jewels. By the conquests of the Spaniards in Mexico and Peru great quantities of pearls were obtained. Old Spanish historians have recorded wonder- ful stories of the wealth of the Aztec kings in pearls, immense numbers of which were exceed- ingly fine. They also affirm the familiarity of these people with the localities from which they were obtained.” FLOWERS OF THE SEA. No words that I know of will say what these mosses are—none are delicate enough, none perfect enough, none rich enough. ... The traceries of intricate silver and fringes of amber, lustrous, arborescent, burnished through every fiber into fitful brightness and glossy traverses of silken change, yet all subdued and pensive, and framed for simplest, sweetest offices of grace.— RUSKIN. Hearts there are on the sounding shore, Something whispers soft to me, Restless and roaming forevermore, Like this, the weary weed of the sea; Bear they yet on each beating breast The eternal type of the wondrous whole, Grace unfolding amid unrest, Grace informing with silent soul. C. G. FENNER. 72 STORY OF : iW HEN next ithe fou riends rothered/in the he, it_was ait ey} ?y aN t seaweed which Undine had placed in her aquarium, calling all to ad- mire her flowers yy of the sea and y-’ to listen to the 27” sea song she had learned about them: 4 THE HALL OF SHELLS. On the surface, foam and roar, Restless heave and passion dash, Shingle rattle along the shore, Gathering boom and thundering crash, Under the surface loveliest forms, Feathery fronds with crimson curl, Treasures too deep for the raid of storms— Delicate coral and hidden pearl. These, the strands of a carpet soft, Richer than mortal ever trod ; Freed by the current and borne aloft To show us the hidden work of God. She begged Dr. McLean to tell of these delicate sea flowers. He began by saying: “The term A/ge, or seaweeds, is much more restricted than formerly; it used to embrace many ma- rine specimens now consigned to the animal kingdom. Many are the gay dissemblers in the sea, and we can almost imagine them laugh- ing together at: their successes in so long de- ceiving the very elect of scientists. “Linneeus, a Swedish naturalist, with great love for Nature and great skill im guessing her riddles, was one of the first to see that many so-called sea plants were sensitive to human touch, and possessed the organs of animal life. He catalogued fifty species which he regarded as seaweeds; we now know of several thou- FLOWERS OF THE SEA. a5 sand, though our knowledge of many of these is quite limited. “1lge have been regarded as belonging to one of three classes, according to their color: the Melanospermece embraced the olive brown and black; the Rhodospermee were the purple and the red; while the Chlorospermec were the green. This arrangement has been discarded and various others substituted, relating more particularly to the structure and development of the Algw. These classifications, however, are still very imperfect, and the nomenclature of many groups is still undetermined. Wheth- er man understands and gives them a name or not, they grow in grace and beauty, perfectly understood by their Creator and accomplishing his will. “They draw their sustenance from the wa- ter, being without roots, often fastening them- selves by a kind of sucker to rocks, shells, and sea bottoms. Not unfrequently their hold be- comes loosened or their branches broken, so we find them tossed by the waves upon the strand or carried in tangles through the waters, far from their native colonies. So great are these masses as sometimes to hinder the pas- sage of ships in their courses. Varieties of kelp in vicinity of the Falkland Islands are 7 16 THE HALL OF SHELLS. twisted by the waves into enormous vegetable cables several hundred feet long and thicker than the human body. There are bays where thousands of people have found employment gathering these spoils after an ocean storm. “The Sargassum bacciferum is the Gulf weed, which always floats and is not unfamil- iar to voyagers upon the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The localities where this seaweed is most abundant are called Sargasso Seas. “Seaweeds love best the quiet waters of the temperate seas, avoiding the cold waves of the frigid zones and the more heated currents of the torrid. If found in these, they lack the delicacy of the mosses in the temperate zone. Different seas and different localities have their distinct sea flora, often found in such immense colonies as to give their color to the sea. “They are dependent upon light, hence are not found below one thousand feet, or the depth to which light ceases to penetrate. Light is their painter also: mosses near the surface, catching its fullest rays, are green like terrestrial vegetation; the brilliant reds and delicate pinks are to be found upon rocks at no great depth and near the coasts; those in the deeper seas grow brown and abundant, and their somber hues but enhance the bril- FLOWERS OF THE SEA. q4 liancy of those that have enjoyed more of the kisses of the sun. They wave like plumes, like gayest ribbons are tossed in the currents; some as fine as frostwork can scarcely be dis- cerned, while others in mimic forests grow to a thousand feet.” Miss Bremely remarked: “There is one variety of seaweed which has passed into his- tory because of its influence upon the industry and the lives of a far-away people. Shall I tell you about it?” She read her answer in the eager faces turned toward her; that of the good doctor beamed with especial pleasure as he listened, and Undine wondered that she had not known before that Dr. McLean liked seaweeds so well. “THE MERMAID’S LACE.” The little island of Burano lies like a gem in the blue Adriatic. In the early days its inhabitants were simple fisher folk, spreading their nets at night in the coves of the sea; in the morning, carrying their fish in rude gon- dolas to the markets of Venice. The women -mended the broken nets or netted new ones, little guessing they were catching a trick of netting which should one day form the founda- tion of a fabric to be the pride of royalty. 38 THE HALL OF SHELLS. But all were not content with this quiet island life. There was one, a youth, who heard strange voices in his soul, luring him away from this little anchorage. The great world, that drew him'with a power he could not resist, prepared a bark for him she called, and he went out, not knowing whither he went, At last, in the far south seas, his heart bade him tear from its briny fastness an un- known seaweed whose beauty attracted him strangely. He had sailed far for this unknown plant. As our hearts prompt us to bestow upon our best beloved the most beautiful gifts at our command, so the heart of this man, who was performing a mission, though he knew it not, bade him carry this trophy of his voyage to a maiden who waited in far Burano. With the utmost care he preserved the deli- cate Algew, and after weeks long and many of weary sailing, he laid the plant, perfect and beautiful, in the hand of the waiting maiden. But, alas! there came a day when the treas- ure began to fade; and the maiden saw that, . notwithstanding her greatest effort, her gift must perish. The same spirit that prompted to its gathering inspired the little fisherwoman. THE MERMAID'S LACE. FLOWERS OF THE SEA. "9 Tirelessly she worked, matching the skill her fingers had acquired in netting of semes with a quenchless desire to preserve a semblance of her fair but perishable treasure. Finally there dawned a morning when the plant lay black and withered. All the beauty which had held the two hearts by its magic was gone; but im the hand of the maiden lay its delicate counterpart, woven of the finest of threads. The little sea plant which, it is said, actu- ally furnished designs for the original Venetian point lace, the netting of which the women of Burano and of Venice were anciently so fa- mous, has since been known as mermaid’s lace. THE ARGONAUT.—THE NAUTILUS. A. bevy of roses, apple-cheeked, In a shell of crystal, ivory-beaked, With a satin sail of a ruby glow. EMERSON. The winds go up and down upon the seas, And some they lightly clasp, entreating kindly, And waft them to the port where they would be; And other ships they buffet, long and blindly, And God hath many wrecks within the sea. Yet it is sweet to think his care is under, That yet the sunken treasure may be drawn Into his storehouse when the sea is gone. CARL SPENCER. 82 x. THE ARGONAUT.—_THE NAUTILUS. Tue day following, Dr. McLean brought Undine a large translucent shell; so thin and shining was it as to suggest the possibility of its vanishing in air like a bubble. “Yesterday,” he said, placing the shell in her hand, “your cousin told us how a people learned to make lace from a piece of seaweed. I will tell you how the Argonauta taught men navigation. “The argonaut and nautilus, although both belonging to the cephalopods—the highest di- vision of the mollusks—are in most points quite unlike; yet in consequence of a similarity in the form of their shells their names have often been indiscriminately used. The little voyager with the silken sail is the Argonauta Argo, . quite generally known as paper nautilus. “ Many and charming are the stories told of this little sailor who, in his fairy bark with .-Satin sail, was wafted o’er the ‘unshadowed 83 84 THE HALL OF SHELLS. main. Six of its arms it dropped as oars at the side of its shallop and two more with their membranes of silk were spread to the wind. “Tt is said that catching glimpses of this little mariner with whose inner life, it now ap- pears, the ancients had no very intimate ac- quaintance, they conceived the idea of the ves- sels which they constructed, propelled by oars, or wafted by the winds. The steamer, too, was an outgrowth of hints given by these little cephalopods, who by forcing water violently through a tube in the body drive themselves with considerable speed in a backward di- rection. “Pictures of these little mariners sailing in fairy fleets have fascinated the world from Aristotle down, and we can hardly pardon scientists of the present day who compel to the belief that these stories are but charming myths. The pretty fleets the ancients saw, we are told, were probably not Nautile at all, but were the Argonauta, which are true floating mollusks ; but even these we are now informed never row their tiny craft nor spread a topsail. “The ‘arms’ of these little animals, we must now believe, were held during the voyage close to the side of the ‘sharp-keeled, high- pooped’ little vessel ‘to keep its balance ‘Jays St Jo gyno savaddv yt sv ynedos3ry “QOBJANS oY} YWBauaq SWIMS JI SB UOTPSOd [wad SIT “IVA 9] JO VOLJANS ey} UO Zuyres se uoTsod po[qevy sj] ‘DAVNODUY Af, Ke se ‘S09 SESBT ro ORE) te) ee THE ARGONAUT.—THE NAUTILUS. 85° straight,’ while the two winglike membranes, that we loved to think were silvery sails, are now supposed to be the secreting organs used in fabricating the boat of pearl. These wise observers have found, too, that it is only the female argonaut who rides like a princess, the males being diminutive and possessed of no insignia of royalty. “The little princess sits serenely in her shell, but is in no way attached to it, and might unharmed be lifted out and placed in another. “The shell, besides serving as her boat, is the pearly cradle or little ark in which the infant Argonauta are borne in safety through the floods. The eggs are fastened to filamen- tary stalks and by these to the involuted spire of the shell, and are usually concealed by the body of the mother. “This shell of the argonaut as you see,” said the doctor, reverting to the shell which Undine still held in her hand, “is thin and brittle as glass; hence while thousands sail the seas but few are found upon the shores. “On the contrary, the shell of the nautilus is thick and strong, and found upon many tropic shores. The pearly nautilus is the one with which we are best acquainted, and seems to be the most abundant. This shell is some- 86 THE HALL OF SHELLS. times a foot across, delicately porcelainlike, of a light-buff tint, beautifully veined or striped in a zigzag pattern with chestnut brown. The beauty of the nacreous lining of this shell I have no words to describe. It seems a min- gling of the delicate tints of most delicate flowers and the beauty and brilliancy of rarest gems. “The shell is divided into chambers, hence the name ‘chambered nautilus.’ When very young this is not the case, but as the animal increases in size it leaves its first compartment, which becomes an empty chamber, and moves forward to one still larger; the rim of the shell continues to grow, and back of the little occu- pant a pearly partition is produced. This is repeated from time to time, the little animal always using the room next to the vestibule; but through all preserving a connection by means of a silvery membranous tube called a siphuncle. “ But few species of these animals now re- main and they alone in warm seas, but geology shows that both Argonauta and Nautili were very abundant in earlier periods. “The fossil ammonite was a kind of ‘old- fashioned cousin’ to the nautilus or paper sailor. These are found in great abundance, THE ARGONAUT.—THE NAUTILUS. 87 some rocks being composed almost entirely of them. The name ammonite comes from a word meaning ram, as anciently these shells were thought to be ram’s horns, which, indeed, they do resemble; hence popularly called Cornua Ammonis, Jupiter Ammon, an Egyptian deity, being sometimes represented in old sculptures with head and horns of a ram, these latter and the shells bearing a fancied resemblance. “They have also been taken by the igno- rant for petrified snakes and called ‘serpent stones.’ The ignorant have been further de- luded by having these ‘serpent stones’ pre- sented to them with a finely carved snake’s head at one end of the coil, while a cunningly devised tradition accounted for the general ab- sence of the head upon the ground that a saint had first beheaded the reptiles and afterward changed them into stone. Sir Walter Scott weaves this legend into his poem entitled Mar- mion, when close around the fire “ Whitby’s nuns exulting told How, of thousand snakes, each one Was changed into a coil of stone, When holy Hilda prayed. And how “Themselves, within their holy bound, Their stony folds had often found. 88 THE HALL OF SHELLS. “These ‘stony folds,’ or fossil shells, are sometimes found three and four feet in diam- eter, but the majority are much smaller. The smaller chambers of these shells seem also to have been air cells, all connected by means of the tube through which air was forced in or dispelled, enabling the little animal to rise or sink at pleasure. These pearly partitions also served to strengthen the shell. “But our story is mcomplete,” said the doctor, “without that charming poem which has given to Dr. Holmes the title of ‘ Poet Laureate of the Nautilus.’” Miss Bremely,. who had anticipated this wish and sat with book in hand, now read the following poem entitled THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS. This is the ship of pearl that poets feign Sails the unshadowed main, The venturous bark that flings On the sweet summer wind its purple wings In gulfs enchanted. where the siren sings And coral reefs lie bare, Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair. Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl, Wrecked is the ship of pearl And every chambered cell, Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell, As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell, THE ARGONAUT.—_THE NAUTILUS. 89 Before thee lies revealed— Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed. Year after year beheld the silent toil That spread this lustrous coil, Still as the spiral grew, He left the last year’s dwelling for the new, Stole with soft step its shining archway through, Built up its idle door, Stretched in its last found home and knew the old no more. Thanks for the heavenly message brought from thee, Child of the wandering sea, Cast from her lap, forlorn ! From thy dead lips a clearer note is borne Than ever Triton blew from wreathéd horn! While on my ear it rings, Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings. Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll, Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast Till thou at length art free, Leaving thy outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea. ROCKED IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP. The sea is a jovial comrade, He laughs wherever he goes; His merriment shines in the dimpling lines That wrinkle his hale repose ; He lays himself down at the feet of the sun, And shakes all over with glee, And the broad-backed billows fall faint on the shore, In the mirth of the mighty sea! BAYARD TaAYLor. 92 XI. ROCKED IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP. “How happy the sea looks to-day! Its waves are sparkling and dimpling as with mer- riment,” and Undine’s heart was like the sea of which she spoke. “Halloo!” shouted Tom from the water's edge; “here’s something beats a mermaid’s cradle. It’s funny enough to make old Nep- tune roar.” And Tom’s laughter, though per- haps a trifle less uproarious, was a very good substitute. There lay a clam shell upon the sand. The tide had lifted a diminutive crab into it and left both just low enough for the sea to touch with its silvery hands and keep them rocking. “That might be called crabbed comfort,” laughed Miss Bremely, “and looks as if Venus had turned Crustacean baby tender.” After amusing themselves for some time over what Tom called “a freak of Nature,” the ever-observant Undine asked, “Cousin Ellen, 98 94 THE HALL OF SHELLS. what did you mean by saying that about Venus turning Crustacean baby tender?” “The shell in which the baby crab is rock. ing is called Venus Californiensis,” said her cousin, “and all the shells of this family were long ago dedicated to the sea-born maiden Venus, whom the doctor told you about some time ago, only he called her Aphrodite, the name the old Greeks gave her. Many of the shells of this family are among the most beau- tifully colored and sculptured as well as the most graceful in shape, and as such were re- garded fitting offerings to the goddess who was said to surpass all others in grace and beauty. “Clams of different varieties are abundant in salt water, some with shells heavy and rough, others thin almost to transparency and beautifully tinted. The round clam, known on the Atlantic coast as quahog and valued as an article of food, furnished the famous purple wampum from the margin of its shell, This violet wampum was counted twice as valuable as the white by the aborigines, and its money value has been commemorated in the name V. mercenaria, by which this clam is called. “The solid shells of the surf clam, Aactra solidissima, were used by the same Indians as hoes for cultivating their maize fields. ROCKED IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP. 95 “The giant clam, Zridacna gigas, would make a ‘sliding chariot’ large enough for a very good-sized sea nymph. This shell, which is said to be the largest in the world, has been found with its valves nearly two yards long and weighing over five hundred pounds. Should you ever go to Paris and visit the Church of St. Sulpice you will there see two valves of this tridacna which are used for hold- ing ‘holy water.’ “One of the most elegant bivalves is that tridacna known as ‘bear’s paw.’ It is from the Indian Ocean, and is beautifully mottled with yellow and red. “ These are only a few of the many varieties of clams suggested by this cradle rocking in the waves. All do not belong to the Venus family, howsoever much by their beauty they may deserve the honor.” Tom had compared the rocking clam shell to a “mermaid’s cradle.” In her hall of shells Undine had a dainty chiton, the C. Katherina, of which she was very fond. It was really a gem of a cradle. The chitons are curious specimens when alive, and death invests them with charms which in life they failed to possess. The shell is made up of eight different pieces so united 96 THE HALL OF SHELLS. by strong ligaments as to allow of the animal adapting itself to rounding surfaces or even to roll itself up like a ball. This skeleton is the pretty “ mermaid’s cradle.” Icelandic sailors affirm the not very palata- ble-looking chiton if swallowed will allay sea- sickness or quench thirst. We have heard of no one able to refute this statement, and in our heart of hearts seri- ously doubt if any one, even in the pangs of seasickness, ever attempted the experiment. GAY, SAD SCHEVENINGEN. The very waves that washed the sand Below him he had seen before Whitening the Scandinavian strand And sultry Mauritanian shore, From ice-rimmed isles, from summer seas Palm-fringed, they brought him messages. WHITTIER, ... but yet I feel for mariners of stormy nights, And feel for wives that watch ashore. Ay, ay, If I had learning I would pray the Lord To bring them in. But I make bold to say, ‘‘O Lord, good Lord, I am a broken-down poor man, a fool To speak to thee. But in the book ’tis writ, As I hear say from others that can read, How when thou camest thou didst love the sea, And live with fisher folk, whereby ’tis sure Thou knowest all the peril they go through And all their trouble.” JEAN INGELOW. 98 XIl. GAY, SAD SCHEVENINGEN, Wuew Dr. McLean again called, he found the party at the beach; upon joining them Undine was quick to spy a package of shells he brought. “These are for you, little Sea-Maiden,” he said, “and will whisper you runes from the north, for they came from Scheveningen upon the stormy North Sea.” “Oh, strange Scheveningen!” exclaimed Miss Bremely. “ Do tell the children of that curious place.” So Dr. McLean told them of Schevenin- gen, where Holland steps down into the sea, where the sands pile themselves into dunes, Gay throughout the summer with the beautiful, the wealthy, the titled, and the crowned of Europe; beaten in winter by the wind-lashed, wraith-whispering, j6tun-vexed sea. He told of its independent, ingenious, and curiously isolated people; of their little village of black cottages over against their other vil- 99 100 THE HALL OF SHELLS. lage of gay and fashionable dwellings; but two miles from The Hague, yet as distinct and original as if from another continent. He led the little group to respect and ad- mire the sturdy industry and independence which wove such strong fiber in the characters of these secluded, oddly dressed, = extremely poor people. He told them how in the decline of the herring fishing, which had been their chief in- dustry, the people were not discouraged, but in rope spinning, weaving nets, gathering shells, selling fish, and the like, gaining but the scanti- est of living, were still brave and true, their very poverty invigorating their characters. How in eye and bearing they demand respect, and with dignity seem to say, “We have need of none!” He told them of the sand dunes, and of the broad beach of hard sand, dotted over with tents and wickerlike chairs with woven covers, to shelter from the sun; of the unique arrangement for bathers; of the festivals and gayeties in which the flower of the aristocracy of Europe participate. When he had finished, and the children were busy upon the beach, he continued mus- ingly, half to himself and half to Miss Bremely : GAY, SAD SCHEVENINGEN. 101 “Brave, brave Scheveningen! Gay, sad Scheveningen! As thou hast two villages, so thou hast two lives! The festivals of summer pass, but none save Heaven and the dwellers in the little black cottages know the heart tragedies enacted there, ‘ the mortal anxieties, the holy joy of return, and the inconsolable sorrow of parting.’ “There is,” he continued, “a Scheveningen memory which these shells always suggest to me.” Seeing Miss Bremely’s interest, he related as follows: “T had been in The Hague two weeks and had often met at my hotel a French count, for whom I instinctively felt an extreme aversion. I had also often seen an Austrian party, evi- dently people of rank. There was nothing particularly attractive about any of these peo- ple, except one, a lady quite young and the most lilylike of any person I had ever beheld. Her complexion was fair as that delicate flower, with a certain charm suggesting to me nothing so much as a lily. Her every motion was re- plete with grace, and her hair, which curled in rings about her face, was like sunlit gold, always reminding me of Mrs. Browning’s words, 102 THE HALL OF SHELLS. “How many golden scudi Went to make such ringlets. “T knew nothing whatever concerning her, but was attracted by her beauty, as old tales tell us men have been charmed by the beauty of a siren. “In my wanderings about the city I often sauntered into a shop where curiosities were sold. I was interested in the relics displayed, which were of an exceptionally fine order, but more, I think, I liked while looking at his wares to listen to the talk of the garrulous old man, who delighted in leaning over his counter and telling the stranger of people and places in his beloved father- land. “ His face radiated good humor, and kind- ness was written in its every line. One day while studying some fine pictures of Holland scenery, Herr Witzman, for that was the old vender’s name, interrupted me with exclama- tions of delight at the beautiful horses he saw dashing down the street. Upon looking out I saw they were attached to a tiny vodture, and were driven by the count of my aversion, while at his side sat the lilylike lady with the golden curls. “T had but time to perceive this when, GAY, SAD SCHEVENINGEN. 1038 ‘Mein Gott! Mein Gott! Es ist Emilie!’ came from the lips of Herr Witzman. “The dashing horses seemed poised in air, their feet almost upon the head of one of the strangest looking beings I had ever seen, one whose peculiar costume showed her to be a woman of Scheveningen. The feet of the horses descended and the human creature lay crushed beneath them. “The count uttered an exclamation of anger, and lashing the fiery horses dashed on down the street, while the lilylike lady, only whiter grown, with a little scream nestled closer to the side of the count. “The poor, mangled, broken piece of hu- manity was tenderly lifted by the old curiosity vender himself and carried into his little shop, while again he repeated, ‘Mein Gott! Es ist Emilie!’ “Upon nearer view, and with the strange hat which she had worn removed, I saw the woman’s face, though marked by dail and ex- posure, was finely chiseled. Its lines of char- acter were drawn strong and deep. I instine- tively compared her face with that of the lily- like maiden, and found I regarded the latter as I had regarded the count. Her beauty was gone forever. 104 THE HALL OF SHELLS. “A physician was summoned and restora- tives applied, but Emilie, as her good old friend called her, was past the help of man. She revived somewhat, but knew none and was unconscious of the presence of any about her, but with wavering breath talked to one we could not see. “Are the boats in?’ she whispered, her rugged native speech sweet with solicitude. ‘It has been long waiting—so long!’ Then wearily she seemed to sleep. “Again she whispered, ‘The fog—the fog —Heaven help the—boats—if they be—coming in!’ Then after a pause, ‘ Mutter—list for the —signals of —Der Lettstern. The roaring—of the sea—is—in—my ears. It is—very cold.’ A shudder passed over her frame; it would have been taken for a paroxysm of pain but that she was past pain’s cruel power. When she spoke again it was hurriedly, as with joy, but with great weakness. ‘ God be praised !’ she said ; ‘ Der Leitstern—is coming—through—the fog! It shines—Mutter—like a—star. Hein- rich !—God be praised !—Heinrich—beckons— , at the prow! See—J/utter—how grand—and fair—he looks! Heinrich—calls—us! Haste, Mutter—I—will—help—thee. The—boat—is —here. Heinrich—I—come! God—be——’ GAY, SAD SCHEVENINGEN. 105 “We who watched doubted not her ejacula- tion of praise and thanksgiving was finished just beyond our dull ears’ hearing, and the hand she raised with her last fluttering heart beat was laid in the hand of him she saw ‘so grand and fair’ waiting for her upon the phan- tom ship. “When all was over Herr Witzman told me Emilie’s sad story. “Kighteen years before Der Leitstern sailed away to fish for herring on the seas about Scot- land. No braver, truer man sailed with her than Heinrich Bretzel, to whom Emilie was betrothed and to whom she should be wed when the flotilla returned from its fishing cruise. “Scarcely a week after the boats went out a fearful storm came on; the heavens were black for days, and the angry sea below seemed ris- ing to meet the angry sky above. Der Leit- stern was never seen again nor its crew heard from. But knowing the character and habits of the Scheveningen fishermen, we believe that after doing their utmost, then, as their custom is, they shut every aperture of the boats, and going into the cabin read the words of him who ‘ruleth the raging of the sea’ and waited his will. “ When the boats came no more, Emilie, who 106 THE HALL OF SHELLS. was not needed in the cottage of her parents, went to the lone mother of her betrothed and labored for her support. When there were no fish for her to bring to the markets of The Hague, she came to Herr Witzman with shells - she gathered among the sad waves at Scheven- ingen. The day of which I have told you she had a small store of shells and was evidently crossing to Herr Witzman’s little shop when thrown under the feet of the horses. “T bought the shells, giving their price into the hand of Herr Witzman to be used toward her burial. The day following I was myself at Scheveningen. “T sat in one of the wicker-basket chairs upon the wide sand beach when a curious closed carriage drawn by a single strong horse came down the sand and was driven out far into the sea. A door opened and the lilylike lady with golden hair descended into the water, and with gay laughter sported among the waves. “ Again in the evening I saw her dancing amid lights and gayety with the French count. “Neither of them thought, nor had hearts worthy to think of Emilie, to whom a life of hardship and of sorrow had given riches of which they had no power to conceive.” SCHEVENINGEN SHELL-GATHERER. ‘AN ANCIENT FAMILY. Truly the skill of the Great Architect of Nature is no less displayed in the construction of a sea urchin than in the building of a world.—EDwarp ForBEs. 108 XIItI. AN ANCIENT FAMILY. “Otp Neptune’s a spendrift! See the ‘sand dollars he’s thrown away! And here’s a devil’s pincushion! What does theology say about that?” asked Tom merrily. “Theology and ‘science take that spiny thing,” answered the minister, “and read in its eventful history ‘by what wonderful, what un- expected roads God arrives at the completion of his designs. One does not discern the slight- est resemblance of form between the little slow-swimming dome (the infant sea urchin) and the spined and boxed urchin which crawls over the rocks.’ “So accustomed are we to the thoughts and to the skill of the Creator as manifested in his works, we are indifferent to the lessons they teach or to the prophecies they may con- tain. So much for your text, Tom! “The sea urchin has several names besides the one which you bestowed upon it. Sea 109 110 THE HALL OF SHELLS. porcupine it is called from the forest.of spines which cover its test. When dead these spines rub off and the beautiful shell is apparent, which then is not inappropriately called sea ego. Lichinus is the name science has given it. This class of radiate animals belongs to the group chinodermata, which means spiny- skinned, and truly the Achinide are a spiny set. Yet those very spines are most wonder. ful examples of the divine handiwork. Their tints are delicate and various; the substance of which they are composed is a calcareous matter, but transparent as glass. Each spine is connected with the interior of the animal and moved at its will. You have noticed the tiny raised processes on the surface of a dead urchin’s shell; the spines have a depression which exactly fits over this point in a man- ner similar to the ball-and-socket joints in the human shoulder and hip. “Tt is by help of these spines that the Echi- nus climbs even a smooth surface, or with them excavates for itself a hiding place in the sand. Many Echini are able by some means to bore holes in rocks, and there spend their days in seclusion and safety from enemies that infest the sea. “The mouth of the sea urchin is on the EO i 4 a re Bs A SEA LILY. 1, Pentacrinoid larva of the rosy feather star. 2. The bud quite young. 3. Dorsal view of the larva of the feather star at very early stage of its development, before the disappearance of the ciliated bands. Much enlarged. . 4. Mature rosy feather star. (Comatula rosacea.) AN ANCIENT FAMILY. 111 under surface, and armed with five calcareous teeth and strong muscular jaws it is well pre- pared to do its work of crushing small crusta- ceans and mollusks, which are its food. “The starfish is the pretty cousin of the sea urchin, and is a ‘lineal descendant’ of the ‘old family’ Crinoidee. There is, in fact, an As. teria who in its early life adheres to the time- honored custom of its ancestry, and fixed to a stalk attaches itself to some graceful seaweed or aristocratic coralline, Their bodies, like others of this group, are supported by calcare- ous envelopes composed of numerous pieces. The number of these plates in the Red Sea starfish, for example, is estimated to be eleven thousand. “Our starfish, as you know, has generally five rays. | Solaster papposus has ordinarily thirteen ; another has more than thirty. In one variety they are found many feet long. “Some starfishes possess the power of grow- ing another ray if one be broken off, and the one sundered may grow four more and be- come starfish ‘No. 2.’ Not only this, but some varieties are actually suicidal, flying to pieces when taken from the water. “The Comatula rosacea, or feathery star, is one of the prettiest creatures you can imagine. 112 THE HALL OF SHELLS. When young it grows upon a stem and waves in the sea as an aster—which it sometimes imi- tates in color as well as form—waves in the breezes. When it becomes fully developed it finds itself free from the restraining stem and floats out into the watery world at will or catches to stones, shells, and seaweeds by its feathery arms, holding with such tenacity that it would seem each bit of feather concealed a claw. “You have heard how starfish delight in living upon mussel and oyster beds, being ex- ceedingly destructive to the latter. If the oyster refuses to open its doors to Mr. Starfish, Mr. Starfish has a way of his own of opening them; and if the oyster still remains obdurate and refuses to be eaten, the starfish accommo- dates himself to circumstances and projects his stomach about the oyster and sucks in the soft parts. The stomach is capacious, extending its lobes into each arm or ray. “Another relative of my lady fair—the stone lily—possessing her family traits but not always her charming attractiveness, is the Holo. thurian or sea cucumber. We do not observe in this unattractive specimen the delicate plates around insulated rounded cavities. Yet natu- ralists tell us the leathery exterior of the sea FIsHING FOR SEA CUCUMBERS IN THE PaiLipeine ISLANDS. HoLorHurip&. AN ANCIENT FAMILY. 113 cucumber is rudimentary calcareous matter ar- ranged on the same plan as in the skeleton of its more attractive relatives. “In color it is green, brown, or red, and its delicate tentacles are arranged over its sur- face, corresponding to the tiny points mark- ing the vegetable which it so strongly resem- bles as to have received its name. In deep-sea dredgings specimens are often brought up about the size of a marketable cucumber. “ Although these strange creatures eat and drink they appear to attach very little impor- tance to their stomachs, sometimes actually vomiting up their whole internal structure, and yet live on undisturbed ; in a few months the organs are reproduced. “The sea cucumbers are found in many seas, but gain their greatest distinction on the coasts of China and Africa, where they are highly appreciated as articles of diet. In China they are prepared for market under the name of ‘ trepang.’ “Although upon first acquaintance these flowerlike animals do not appear to resemble each other, nevertheless we find they preserve the family characteristics of their distinguished progenitors, the stone lilies, so abundant in past ages that whole beds of marble have been 114 : THE HALL OF SHELLS. formed almost entirely from their broken stems and flowers. “Once the glory of the sea, they have dwindled to a few species, inhabiting for the most part the deepest seas.” The following may be helpful in giving an understanding of the classes of Echinodermata. First we have the Crinoidea, which are really stalked starfishes, the body mounted upon a stem which is jointed and hollow; second, the Asteroidea, which are free and have five arms; third, Echinoidea, having a spherical body, with long spines; fourth, the Holothuroide, having elongated bodies, with skin soft or muscular. BARNACLES. There are castles by the sea; All their domes are porphyry. Tell me who the builders be Of these castles by the sea. Anon, 116 XIV. BARNACLES. “HERE we come to a pygmies’ village,” said Miss Bremely one day when the party were upon the beach. “TI can scarcely step without shattering their tiny towers, they stand so thick upon the rocks.” “When the little tenants of these castles ‘take the curl papers out of their hair, and opening their two-valved doors look over their turrets, any small knight might be charmed into riding a tilt in their behalf,” laughed the doctor. “Don’t barnacles live in these little cas- tles?” questioned Undine. “Yes,” replied Dr. McLean ; “ though if you were to ask them who they were I fancy they would never know what to say. They have so many transitions I wonder if they know whether they are themselves or somebody else. Tn external appearance they resemble the mol- lusks ; in more important parts of their organ- isms they are crustaceans. 117 118 THE HALL OF SHELLS. “Tn their first form these little castle hold- ers, but dancing atoms, have one big black eye, three pairs of legs, and on the forehead a pair of flexible horns. If we did not know the end we should say a mistake had been made in their legs, which seem to grow more and more unfit for use either for land or water. ‘As. cending the scale,’ the body with its fringed legs, to which are added two pair more, is now inclosed in a tiny two-valved shell like a mus- sel. Its one eye becomes two, its head and antenne increase in size, and it now prepares to make the most wonderful change of all. It ‘stands on its head’ literally and fastens itself head downward to the rocks by means of a cement itself secretes. Its bivalve shell is no longer needed, its shield becomes the beginning of its castle walls, and its group of legs become tentacles which wave gracefully backward and look like delicate curls of hair. It is these which give the name Cirripeda to this group, cirrus meaning a lock of hair and pedes a foot. ' “They now are true barnacles, and their castles by the sea are like turrets crowding one upon another. “ All barnacles are not the same kind, and their turrets are not all upon the rocks. Many are attached to pieces of wood, hulls of ships, Ee Te en ee BARNACLES. Murex haustellum and Harpa imperialis, with attached barnacles. Infant barnacles. BARNACLEN. 119 ete. Not infrequently vessels put into port and have these incrustations which grow bur- densome, removed. Others, more nomadic per- haps in their dispositions, attach themselves to the bodies of whales, of sharks, etc., and while stationary are still among the greatest of tray- elers. “When myths and science were much in- termingled, the barnacle was believed to be the embryo of a goose, hence called the barnacle goose. We find one of the learned men of the sixteenth century describing: ‘A thing in form like a lace of silke finely woven, the first that appeareth when the shell gapeth open. A little later the legs of the bird hang out. In short space of time it cometh to maturity and falleth into the water, where it becometh a fowl.’ While science has dissolved this fable, it is known notwithstanding that the barnacle does pass through transitions quite as wonderful.” The children fell to examining barnacles, the doctor to musing, presumably upon science. Miss Bremely sat watching the waves that came riding up the sand like restless, foaming steeds. Presently she began singing softly Sid- ney Lanier’s exquisite lines entitled 120 THE HALL OF SHELLS. BARNACLES. My soul is sailing through the sea, But the Past is heavy and hindereth me. The Past hath crusted, cumbrous shells That hold the flesh of cold sea- pels About my soul The huge waves wash, the high waves roll, Each barnacle clingeth and worketh dole And hindereth me from sailing! Old Past let go and drop i’ the sea Till fathomless waters cover thee! For I am living, but thou art dead ; Thou drawest back, I strive ahead The Day to find. Thy shells unbind! Night comes behind, I need must hurry with the wind And trim me best for sailing. The face of the singer was toward the sea, and she did not know as she might if she had looked into the doctor’s eyes that he had ceased to meditate upon science. A SEA FAN AND A SEA PARABLE. What the cloud doeth The Lord knoweth ; The cloud knoweth not. What the artist doeth The Lord knoweth ; Knoweth the artist not. SIDNEY LANIER. Take therefore the talent from him—for unto every one that hath shall be given; but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.—Bible. 122 XV. A SEA FAN AND A SEA PARABLE. Unprne discovered a fan gorgon in the doc- tor’s cabinet and begged to know what it was, while Tom was no less delighted with the va- rieties of coral the cabinet contained. “Oh, that,” said the doctor to Undine, “was a mermaid’s fan, and no belle of terra jima could boast of a fan so gorgeous. Its tints were rose and yellow, green and lavender, and bedight with jeweled filigree it flashed until its glitter made a sort of daylight under the sea. It is called a fan gorgon, Undine, and when alive was even more dainty and charming in color, and far more glittering than I have described or can lead you to imagine. Dainty and beautiful enough it was to be called a mer- maid’s fan. “Tt was long considered a singular and gor- geous sea plant, but the microscope has re- vealed it to be the home and the work of little polypi which naturalists had thought were 10 1238 124 THE HALL OF SHELLS. flowers. The polypier, or polypus stalk, of the sea fan, surrounded by only a semicalcareous crust, is flexible, the whole structure tough and elastic. Different species show various, but all beautiful formations. Sometimes the branches appear nearly straight, at others they are a mazy network of the most delicate and intri- cate tracery, and when their colonies of jewel- like polypi are in bloom they seem the realiza- tion of a fairy dream. “Gorgonide are found in all seas, but are most abundant in those of warm climates, as is the case with all species of polypi. “These fan manufacturers were cousins to the polypi who wrought those miracles in stone,” continued the doctor, turning to Tom and the corals. “All these little workers have been known as Zodphytes, or flower animals. They might have been called Phi- losopher’s Puzzles, for such they have long been, and even now they keep many of their pretty secrets safe in their own little stomachs, this anatomical locality being at present regarded by the sages as the ‘seat and center’ of personal identity in these pretty polypi. “Tn their living and active state each little worker looks like a tiny star with its rays ar- A SEA FAN AND A SEA PARABLE. 125 ‘ranged about the central point, which is the mouth. “We are apt to regard such minute organ- isms as insensible to surrounding comilitions, and unable to communicate with each other even if they might be conscious of anything to communicate, but we find Nature clothes her ‘feeble folk’ with mystery and endows them with faculties we can not understand; and if you were to injure or disturb one of the polyps in a piece of coral like this, quick as a flash would the danger be telegraphed to every member of the little colony, and you would see each tiny animal instantly curl back as if he had been the one who suf- fered. “An enormous traffic is carried on in the different varieties of coral, affording employ- ment for hundreds of vessels and thousands of fishermen. It is broken from the sea bottom by means of beams or irons attached to the boats used for that purpose, and brought up by grappling irons; divers also are employed in these coral fisheries. I once saw them in the Mediterranean gathering red coral (Corallium rubrum), the divers themselves looking like very unattractive mermen, or sea monsters, as they came up from the depths with the great 126 THE TALL OF SHELLS. nets swung from their shoulders in which they had deposited the coral. “The bulk of coral used for ornamentation is fished from the Mediterranean Sea, and some- times at a depth of seven or eight hundred feet. “The red is susceptible of a fine polish, and is much sought after by many Eastern nations for personal adornment, for sword hilts, for amulets, which. are superstitiously believed to have power to avert evil. The name given it by the Greeks commemorated their belief that it was originally the blood drops that fell upon the seashore from the head of Medusa, hardened and planted in the sea by ocean nymphs. “Formerly the red commanded the highest price of all the corals, but this point has been yielded to the delicate pink, which vies in color with the tinted petals of the queen of flowers. “Besides the red, pink, and white coral, there are many shades of green, brown, yellow, and black. All are more or less beautiful, both in life and in death. “The flowerlike inhabitants have disap- peared, but their workmanship remains in these exquisite marbles before you, Tom,” continued A SEA FAN AND A SEA PARABLE. 127 the doctor in a more serious vein. “ During their lives this dainty tracery was hidden, but now we can see the true beauty of the homes into which their lives were wrought. This calcareous substance secreted by these polypi is ‘partitioned into cells with mathematical regularity, and, studding the entire surface, produces a most beautiful effect. The spe- cific variety of these coral homes is almost endless, yet each species builds after its type. The lesson has been learned, and the crea- tures live up to it throughout endless genera- tions.’ ” * While Dr. McLean displayed the different varieties of coral which his cabinet contained, Miss Bremely said, “The quotation you have just given suggests to me a sea parable which I think contains a beautiful lesson.” The doc- tor turned to her with a pleasant interest, and, interpreting his wish in the smile he gave, she repeated the following * Henry A. Ward, in Catalogue of Corals, Gorgons, etc. % ee OE a na 128 ‘WHE HALL) OF SHELLS. oa — == =a SEA PA Zz LIE ou in-your building ne 1 thea LEZ oe ; RABLEZ = Z EZ NC r PEN on the sand. gay 94, OUr liferotgl ery » OWA DI V2 ae Ce er improvedzyour. dispositioh,?said(} wip yA pea f . @ Z BLA Zs aS elsure does? not séem to ae a f ee Ore Og or ay emreceding wave,F Yare es ig Wave,7 You ore ts which were