How to Collect Shells
Provision being thus made for the comfortable accommodation of your treasures, the next consideration is, how to set about collecting them. Mollusca are to be found all over the globe, from the frozen north to the sun-baked tropics, on the land or in lakes, rivers, or seas—wherever, in fact, they can find the food and other conditions suitable for their growth and development; but the collector who is not also a great traveller, must of course rely for his foreign specimens upon the generosity of friends, or else procure them from dealers. In most districts of our own country, there are, however, to be found large numbers of shells whose variety and beauty will astonish and reward the efforts of any patient seeker. Begin with your own garden,—search in the out-of-the-way, and especially damp, corners; turn over the flower-pots and stones which have lain longest in one place, search amongst the roots of the grass growing under walls, and in the moss round the roots of the trees, and you will be surprised at the number of different shells you may find in a very short space of time. When the resources of the garden have been exhausted, go into the nearest lanes and again search the grass and at the roots of plants, especially the nettles which grow beside ditches and in damp places; hunt amongst the dead leaves in plantations, and literally leave no stone unturned. All the apparatus it is necessary to take on these excursions consists of a few small match or pill-boxes in which to carry home the specimens; a pair of forceps to pick up the smaller ones, or to get them out of cracks; a hooked stick to beat down and pull away the nettles; and, above all, sharp eyes trained to powers of observation. The best time to go out, is just after a warm shower, when all the grass and leaves are still wet, for the land-snails are very fond of moisture, and the shower entices them out of their lurking-places. Where the ground is made of chalk or limestone, they will be found most abundant; for as the snail’s shell is composed of layers of animal tissue, strengthened by depositions of calcareous earthy-matter which the creature gets from the plants on which it feeds, and these in their turn obtain from the soil—it naturally follows that the snail prefers to dwell where that article is most abundant, as an hour’s hunt on any chalk-down will soon show.
When garden and lanes are both exhausted, you may then turn to the ponds and streams in the neighbourhood, where you will find several new kinds. Some will be crawling up the rushes near the margin of the water, others will be found in the water near the bank, while others may be obtained by pulling on shore pieces of wood and branches that may be floating in the water; but the best are sure to be beyond the reach of arm or stick, and it will be necessary to employ a net, which may be easily made by bending a piece of wire into a circle of about four inches in diameter, and sewing to it a small gauze bag; it may be mounted either on a long bamboo, or, better still, on one of those ingenious Japanese walking-stick fishing-rods. For heavier work, however, such as getting fresh-water mussels and other mollusca from the bottom, you will require a net something like the accompanying figure (Fig. 2), about one foot in diameter. This, when attached to a long rope, may be thrown out some distance and dragged through the water-weeds to the shore, or if made with a square instead of a circular mouth, it may be so weighted that it will sink to the bottom, and be used as a dredge for catching the mussels which live half-buried in the mud. To carry the water-snails home, you will find it necessary to have tin boxes (empty mustard-tins are the best), as match-boxes come to pieces when wetted.
The finest collections of shells, however, are to be made at the sea-side, for the marine mollusca are both more varied in kind and more abundant than the land and fresh-water ones, and quite an extensive collection may be made in the course of an afternoon’s ramble along the shore; it is necessary, however, to carefully reject such specimens as are worn by having been rolled by the waves upon the beach, as they are not of any great value in a collection; it is better, in fact, if possible, to go down to the rocks at low water and collect the living specimens. Search well about and under the sea-weeds, and in the rock-pools, and, when boating, throw your dredge-net out and tow it behind, hauling it in occasionally to see what you have caught, and to empty the stones and rubbish out.
At low tide also, look out for rocks with a number of round holes in them, all close together, for in these holes the Pholas (Fig. 22) dwells, having bored a burrow in the solid rock, though how he does it we do not yet quite know.
The Razor-shells and Cockles live in the sand, their presence being indicated by a small round hole; but they bury themselves so fast that you will find it difficult to get at them. Some good specimens, too, of the deeper water forms are sure to be found near the spots where fishermen drag their boats ashore, as they are often thrown away in clearing out the nets; moreover, if you can make friends with any of the said fishermen, they will be able to find and bring you many nice specimens from time to time.
The reason that so much has been said about collecting living specimens, is not only because in them the shell is more likely to be perfect, but also because in its living state the shell is coated with a layer of animal matter, sometimes thin and transparent, at others thick and opaque, called the periostracum (or epidermis), which serves to protect the shell from the weather, but which perishes with the animal, so that dead shells which have lain for some time tenantless on the ground, or at the bottom of the water, exposed to the destructive agencies that are constantly at work in nature, have almost invariably lost both their natural polish and their varied hues, and are besides only too often broken as well. Since, however, even a damaged specimen is better than none at all, such should always be kept until a more perfect example can be obtained.