Rowing shell

“ The shell becomes like a boat it is true, but its inhabitant neither points a sail nor plies the oar, but propels itself along stem foremost by a muscular action, which by alternately compressing and loosening a kind of siphon, throws out jets or gushes of water, which by the resistance they meet with from the surrounding fluid, give the desired onward motion, and away the swimmer goes, his long arms gathered closely together, and streaming behind like the tail of a comet, and its round eyes keeping a sharp look-out on either side. ”

“ But the gravel hid them from the eyes of egg-eating fishes and musk-rats; the water kept them cold, but not too cold; the fresh oxygen came and encouraged them if ever they grew tired and dull, and so the good work went on.
Through each thin, leathery, semi-transparent shell you could have seen, if you had examined it closely, a pair of bright, beady eyes, and a dark little thread of a backbone that was always curled up like a horseshoe because there wasn't room for it to lie straight. ”

“ The tackle, you observe, is carefully coiled on the sand at the fisher’s feet. Now on each hook he fixes a cray-fish, piercing the shell beneath the tail, and forcing the keen weapon to reach the very head of 198 the suffering creature, while all its legs are left at liberty to move. Now, each man, holding his line a yard or so from the hooks, whirls it several times overhead, and sends it off to its full length directly across the stream. ”

“ They entered four, six, and even ten fathoms of water, for the shell is larger the deeper they go, and if at times the larger ones come in shallow water it is through storms, or because they go from one place to another in search for food, and having found their pasture they stay there until they have finished it. They perceive those who search for them, and stick so close to the rocks or ground, or one to another, that much strength is needed to detach them, and many times the fishermen cannot raise them and leave them, thinking they are stones. ”

“ This beautiful and versatile foot is suddenly thrust out sideways, to the distance of four inches from the shell. Then, its point being curved backwards, the animal pushes it strongly against any opposing object, by the resistance of which the whole animal, shell and all, makes a considerable step forwards. ”

“ These Naidæ have not a bissus like the Marine Mussels, they are therefore never attached to one object; they use their foot as a propeller in traversing the muddy floor of the pond or river, and they have a very funny way of getting along indeed; first, they open the valves of the shell, put out the foot, and after some little hard work, manage to set themselves up on edge ”

“ It lays millions of eggs and hatches countless baby mollusks. It lives its life in its shell, lugging it around, snuggling into it when alarmed, burrowing into mud, fastening itself to a rock and creating ingenious camouflage. It builds its calcareous house with a great instinctive talent for color and sculpture. ”

“ Everyone who has spent a little time in naturalising on the shore, has noticed how often you may find univalve shells, such as those of the whelk and periwinkle, with the top of the shell knocked off. This is nearly always the case with the dead shells that you find strewn along the tide-line; and after a storm, on a rocky coast, you may find shells that still contain the living tenant, in the same sad condition. And you may also meet not infrequently with shells, dead or living, that bear evidence of the owners' efforts to repair them after an accident to the spire. ”

“ At the appointed time the shell opens at the back part of the head, and the prawn becomes gradually freed from its old covering. The marvellous process completed, like all its crustaceous brethren, the creature becomes to a certain extent helpless, and if such convenience be afforded, retires for protection beneath some shell or fragment of rock, from whence it soon re-appears, and repeats its gymnastic exercises, which cease, however, for a few days, as soon as the new coat is sufficiently hardened. ”

“ The next shell will bring it down, even if it's a couple of hundred yards away, merely by the vibration. We find shell holes so useful for watering the horses. They seem to retain water in a most curious way. ”

“ The corrugations of the shell, which mark its growth, form a series of smooth ridges, upon and against which, with their contortions of twists and bends and tilts, these fishes glance in scratching themselves. ”

“ The body of the tree was carried across the splintered stump with crushing impact from the power of its flight, plus the power of the burst of the explosive charge which broke the shell-jacket into slashing fragments; and the towering column of limbs, branches, and foliage laid its length on the ground with a majestic dignity. Which shows what one shell can do, one of three which burst in the neighbourhood at the same time. In time, the shells would get all the trees; make them into chips and splinters and toothpicks. ”

“ I suggest you and I stay close together, [Pg 195] and a few seconds before you are going to explode the shell, give me two taps on the shoulder. Then I can give the cry of a hoot owl, and each man can jump to his feet to be ready when the shell lights up the surroundings. ”

“ There will be no difficulty in this respect with the multivalve and bivalve kinds, which are only kept closed by means of a set of muscles, which can be tightened or relaxed at the pleasure of the animal within, and become powerless to keep the shell closed as soon as that is dead. Great care must be taken to preserve unbroken the smaller parts of these shells, such as the hinges or teeth, as on the structure of these the scientific arrangement into genera chiefly depends ”

“ Hair-like growths that act like propellers, give it the power to move slowly through the waters. Thus it creeps and swims, searching here and there until it finds the resting-place it is after. Then it makes fast to the place selected, and its shell rapidly enlarges. ”

“ Most usually he walks about at the bottom of the sea on his long arms, something like the Cuttle-fish, feeding on the marine vegetation; the shell is then uppermost; if we could look inside of it we should see numerous little chambers or cells, the larger and outermost of which only are inhabited by the mollusk, the others being filled with air render the whole light and buoyant. ”

“ During the latter part of summer and autumn, these minute shell-fish constitute the food of almost all those busy flocks that run with such activity along the sands, among the flowing and retreating waves. They are universally swallowed whole; but the action of the bird’s stomach, assisted by the shells themselves, soon reduces them to a pulp. Digging for these in the hard sand would be a work of considerable labour, whereas, when the particles are loosened by the flowing of the sea, the birds collect them with great ease and dexterity. ”

“ He wades in at a slow pace, gazing searchingly into the depths of the water for a sign of his prey, choosing at first the shoals where it is easier to see, and as likely a spot as others for fine shellfish. And here a curious phenomenon is discovered; his eye catches the glint of a shining shell and he stoops to secure it, only to find a half shell without life. The brighter the shell, the less chance of its being inhabited. ”

“ After I had learned a great many interesting things about the life and habits of the children of the sea—how in the midst of dashing waves the little polyps build the beautiful coral isles of the Pacific, and the foraminifera have made the chalk-hills of many a land—my teacher read me "The Chambered Nautilus," and showed me that the shell-building process of the mollusks is symbolical of the development of the mind. ”

“ The fighting and struggling to secure houses is ludicrous in the extreme. One may be seen almost successful in mooring himself within a shell—which, by the way, is effected by means of the shelly plates at the extremity of his soft, twisted tail—when another seizes him by the nape of the neck, as it were, and he is dragged reluctantly forth. ”

“ Up goes his head, lifting the snail high in the air, and then, smash! the shell comes down on the stone with all the force he can use. About two such blows break the shell, and he then coolly chips the fragments off as you might from an egg, and makes very few mouthfuls of the contents. On the stone and round about it lie the fragments of many such shells—relics of former feasts. Sometimes he will do this close to the bay-window—if all is quiet—using the stone-flags for an anvil, if he chances to find a snail hard by; but he prefers the recess behind the box-hedge. ”

“ The muscular force exerted is sufficient to penetrate the soft sand to the whole length, when the point is suddenly bent sidewise, thus obtaining a strong holdfast. The whole organ is now strongly contracted in length, and the animal and shell are dragged forcibly to the mouth of the burrow, the edges of the valves downward and piercing the sand a little way. ”

“ On the hill above us, the earth was literally covered with fragments of shell—Parrott, shrapnell, canister; besides lead in all shapes and forms, and a long kind of solid shot, shaped like a small Parrott shell. Minié balls lay in every direction, flattened, dented, and bent from the contact with trees and pieces of wood in their flight. ”

“ Then, besides these, there are four or five younger shells, the smallest of which has only two and a half whorls, which exactly correspond to two and a half whorls taken from any of the larger shells; so I think we may conclude that a shell grows by adding on length only to the large end of a tapering tube, like a dunce’s cap, which, however, is curled up like a ram’s horn, to look prettier, take up less room, and allow the occupant to beat a retreat round the corner when a robin comes. By-the-bye, I wonder some birds don’t grow bills like corkscrews, to get at the snails with. ”

“ Shells appear to be used occasionally by other species besides man. Oyster-catchers at breeding time prepare a number of imitation nests in the gravel on the spit of land where they build, putting bits of white shell in them to represent eggs. ”

“ The fish of this class, known as the shells of Venus, are able to navigate the surface of the deep, and, presenting to the wind their concave side, catch the breeze, and sail along on the surface of the sea. Scallops are also able to leap and fly above the surface of the water, and they sometimes employ their shell by way of a bark. ”

“ The color-patterns of the shell vary to a wonderful degree. The young shell has a thin epidermis, a sharp lip to the aperture and a more or less prominent spire, the rolled over and toothed lip and polished surface not being acquired until fully adult. No more beautiful sight can be imagined than one of these gorgeous animals, as seen through the clear water, crawling over the sandy bottom or on the branch of some coral. ”

“ On the other hand, shells occurring in sheltered situations, estuaries, narrow straits, or even on open coasts where there is plenty of shelter from the waves, are comparatively of great size, with a well-developed, sometimes produced spire, and a mouth small in proportion to the area of shell surface. ”

“ Univalves, that is to say shells which consist of one piece, are those of the snail-like animals, Gasteropoda, or Gastropoda, as some prefer to spell it. Bivalves, or shells which consist of two flaps, are those of the Lamellibranchiata or animals with plate-like gills, such as the mussel or oyster.
Let us begin with the former. Everybody knows the snail. The snail proper bears a typical univalve shell: though in its relatives (the slugs) , the shell is more or less suppressed. ”

“ Man in his most primitive condition must have resorted to the sea-shore for the food which it affords. Weapons or other appliances were not necessary in the capture of mollusks; a stone to break the shell, or one of the massive valves of the shells themselves, sufficed for all purposes.
The shells of mollusks probably came into use as utensils at a very early date, and mutually with products of the vegetable world afforded natural vessels for food and water. ”

“ So steep is the slope that sometimes they slip and roll a little way down it, but they always recover themselves and run up it again, none the worse. In the intervals between such little mishaps they seem to be picking minute shell-fish off the rock; but what shell-fish are they? for the small white ones, with which large areas of the rock are covered, are as hard as stone, and might defy anything short of a hammer and chisel to dislodge them. It is not on these assuredly that these soft little things are feeding, and now I see that where they are most active the rock is black. ”

“ An expert can at a glance tell whether a given shell has come from shallow or deep water, and whether from an exposed or sheltered spot. Most shellfish move about a great deal, and migrate into deeper water in summer; and on bright clear days retire into dark corners amongst, and even under, stones. On a dull day a collector is frequently more successful than on a bright, sunny day ”

“ Chambered nautilus is brother to the octopus, but he wears his castle permanently—and on the outside.
THE SHELL AS AN ARCHITECT. . .HOW DOES HE DO IT? Picture a vast undersea factory with billions of shells in constant production. Each is made slowly and entirely of lime which the little animal inside extracts from its food, almost from the first day of its life. Each shell builder flawlessly follows the shape and design of the species to which it belongs. ”