. West coast shells. A familiar description of the marine, fresh water, and land mollusks of United States, found west of the Rocky Mountains ... he Slipper Shells —The SpinyCup-and-Saucer Limpet. Y first opportunity to gather any of the shellswhich are described in this book occurred agood many years ago. The place was ashallow arm of San Francisco bay, and theshell was the one shown in Fig. 56. Ishall never forget the pleasure I felt, as Isaw them lying by dozens and hundreds onthe surface of the mud, after the tide hadgone down. They seemed to be enjoyingthe fresh air, and were in no hurry
. West coast shells. A familiar description of the marine, fresh water, and land mollusks of United States, found west of the Rocky Mountains ... he Slipper Shells —The SpinyCup-and-Saucer Limpet. Y first opportunity to gather any of the shellswhich are described in this book occurred agood many years ago. The place was ashallow arm of San Francisco bay, and theshell was the one shown in Fig. 56. Ishall never forget the pleasure I felt, as Isaw them lying by dozens and hundreds onthe surface of the mud, after the tide hadgone down. They seemed to be enjoyingthe fresh air, and were in no hurry for theFig^ return of the tide. Similar species, inother countries, spend so much time in the air thatthey have been mistaken for land shells. As they were my first shells, and I was ignorant oftheir name, I sent a few to the Smithsonian Institu-tion to be identified. The name proved to be Cerith-idea sacrata, Gld., Se-ri-thid-e-a sa-cra-ta. In com-mon words we may call them Horn Shells. But I was as ignorant about the proper care of theshells as concerning their name, and a pretty sourceof trouble they were to me. The animals soon died,. 72 BITTIUM. and my crude attempts to remove them from theshells were instructive, if not entertaining. To pre-vent any other young collector from getting into thesame troubles, I would advise that after prompt boil-ing, all the soft parts be removed by a pin or bentwire. In shells of this shape, a complete removal ofthe perishable parts is often very difficult. In suchcases, remove all that you can, and then securely plugthe hole with cotton, and attach the operculum to thecotton by a drop of glue. This shell is commonly an inch or more in length,and consists of about ten strongly ribbed whorls. Theoutside is dull and black, but the inside is of a glossybrown. The aperture is entire and nearly circular,and is closed by a thin, brown operculum. Bittium jilosum, Gld., Bit-ti-um fi-lo-sum, is shownin Fig. 57. Unlike the last species, whichseems
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectmollusks, bookyear188
