. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. NATURAL â of the West Indies, is one of the largest of As it becomes old the animal tills up its apex. The great Stromhm yigas, the " Foiintuin-shell living shells, weighing sometimes four or tive pounds. and spines with solid shell matter. Immense quantities are annually imported from the Bahamas for the manufacture of cameos, and for the porcelain works. Prof. T. C. Archer states that 300,000 were brought to Livei-pool alone in 1850. Strombs are common to the West Indies, the Mediten-aneim, Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Pacif
. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. NATURAL â of the West Indies, is one of the largest of As it becomes old the animal tills up its apex. The great Stromhm yigas, the " Foiintuin-shell living shells, weighing sometimes four or tive pounds. and spines with solid shell matter. Immense quantities are annually imported from the Bahamas for the manufacture of cameos, and for the porcelain works. Prof. T. C. Archer states that 300,000 were brought to Livei-pool alone in 1850. Strombs are common to the West Indies, the Mediten-aneim, Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Pacific. Their favourite resort is on reefs at low water, down to ten fathoms' ^^^^^^^^S^^^^^^^BKSj^ depth. Sixty species are known living, and ^fey ^^^^S^~ ~P^'ifr^^'^^Sin, JH many species occur fossil in the Miocene ~ ' ^^ ^ Tertiaries of Europe. "Though tiie natives of the Antilles possessed few natural advantages over the inhabitants of the volcanic and coral islands of the Pacific, yet the abundance of large and easily wrought shells invited their appli- cation to many useful purposes, and accord- ingly, when first visited by the Spaniards, the large marine shells, with which the neighbouiing seas abound, constituted an important source for the raw material of their implements and manufactures. The great size and the facility of workmanship of the widely-diffused Pynda, Turhinella, Strombi, and other shells have indeetl led to a similar application of them among uncivilised races wherever they abound. Of such, the Caribs made knives, lances, and harpoons, as well as personal ornaments, while the INIollusc itself was .sought for and prized as food. In Barbadoes, the Sfrombiis gigas still furnishes a favourite repast, and numerous weapotis and implements made from its shells have been dug up on the island. Plain beads formed from the columella of Stromhus gigas have been found in the ancient gi-aves of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana. The columelhe were found worked to a u
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjecta, booksubjectanimals
