WHO does not love the beauty of shells? Who, when visiting the sea-shore, has not sought them with eagerness? Their beautiful colors are pleasing to the sight.

The Indians have always loved shells on account of their bright colors. No doubt they many times tried to paint their faces the same color. They used to make money from the pink or purple portions of them.

There are thousands of different kinds of shells. To get the full beauty of them we must see them in their native homes amidst the sands and stones and the roaring sea.

Mr. Emerson tells of finding the "delicate shells on the shore," and how the fresh waves seemed to add new beauty to them. He wiped away the foam and the weeds and carried them home. He could not take the foam and waves and sky and ocean's roar. He says the shells

Did you ever place a large shell to your ear and listen to its roar? It sounds like the distant roar of the sea. Mr. Wordsworth says:

We can not all go to the sea to study its wonders. So we will have to do the best we can studying pictures of shells, making collections of as many kinds as possible and studying about the animals that have lived in them.

Each shell, it matters not how small, has been the home of a living creature. Each has an interesting story for us if we will but read it.

Shell-fish have no bones as other fish have. They, therefore, need a solid house in which to live. The shells not only serve them for houses, but for bones to keep their pliable bodies in shape, for ships in which to sail, and for beautiful dresses, starched and shining.

If these soft animals had no solid shells they would immediately be eaten by other animals of the sea or dashed to death by the waves.

But it is not alone the beauty of shells that renders them interesting. Conchology, which treats of shells, is as a science at least as old as the days of Aristotle, the study of which was resumed, along with that of the other sciences, when the dark ages had passed away. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century it has given place to a more extended and comprehensive study of molluscous animals, the presence or absence of a shell having been found not to constitute one of the most important characteristics which distinguish different classes of mollusks. Conchology was only the form of the science suited to a time when the shell was more considered than its inhabitant. Yet it is claimed that the relations between shells and the mollusks which possess them are such that the labors of the merest conchologists have contributed to the real advancement of science, both zoÖlogical and geological.

Shells consist of carbonate of lime secreted by the animal and intermixed with some animal matter. In the species in which it is least developed it appears as a hollow plate, which serves as a protection to the breathing organ and heart. The protuberances and ridges seen on many univalve and bivalve shells appear in the course of their growth by the margin of the mantle, turning out at a considerable angle and thus building up a plate in this position for a certain distance. This growth then ceases, the mantle retracts, or may be regarded as changing itself into the shelly layers, and thus it extends in the original direction, carrying out the shell with it, till it turns again to form a second plate or ridge; and so the process goes on. Many mollusks possess the power of altering and enlarging their shells to adapt them to their growth, which they appear to do as if by an intelligent will.

The distinguishing marks of shells are the number of parts of which they are composed, and their peculiar forms and prominences. Some consist of a single piece, some of two pieces, and some of three. The textures of shells are described as pearl, fibrous, horny, and some are glassy and translucent. The pearly shells are in alternate layers of very thin albuminous membrane and carbonate of lime, which by their minute undulations give the pearly lustre. This structure is the least permanent and in some geological formations the shells that were provided with it have disappeared, leaving only their casts, while those of fibrous texture are preserved unchanged. Colors, however beautifully exhibited upon the surface of shells, are to them no more distinctive features than to the minerals and flowers upon which they are also prominently displayed. They are most richly developed upon those surfaces most exposed to the light and in the class of shells found in shallow waters.

The whole number of species of molluscous animals known is estimated at about twelve thousand recent and fifteen thousand fossil. Many of the living species furnish wholesome food, and some are esteemed as delicacies. The marine shells, by the immense numbers in which they are produced, perform an important office in abstracting from the sea-water its excess of calcareous matter and thus aid in maintaining its purity.

As objects of beauty, shells have always been admired and frequently been used as ornaments. Some varieties were used by the Athenians as ballots, with the name upon them of the person to be banished, whence the term ostracism. Some shells have served the purpose of coin among rude nations. Others are noted for the pearls which are secreted between their valves around some foreign substances. Mother-of-pearl is the polished shell of nacreous. Rare species of shells are highly prized by collectors, and single specimens have been sold for large sums. The South Sea Islanders use the conch as an instrument of music, blowing into the shell through the broken top, thereby producing a loud and mellow sound. It is a species of sea conch which is represented by the god Triton. In many rural parts of the United States conches are used in place of dinner bells or tin horns to call persons from a distance.