The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-10-24
SHELL-HUNTERS,
Curious Business-A California
 Trade of the Sea.

1 he added with retrospective smile, tits like anything else; I'm the produ- cer, and the producer generally ~gets left; the middlemen that gets the mon- ey is these curiosity dealers
 You see" continued the shell-col- lector, taking a seat on the side of his boat, q collect shells from all the is | lands of the Santa Barbara group, fix them up in the winter, and sell them in the summer. But the city folks and tourists go up to the curiosity shops and buy shells at half the price of mine. and where do you suppose they come from? Why, Mexico or the islands or the Pacific; they run them in as works of art or something of the kind"
 The old mans craft was surrounded by crowd, and he was selling unpol-' ished abalones at price that was ruinaton to the dealers. In bucket he had quantity of conch-like shells, while several boxes were filled with boat shells, cypraeas and others-all just as they were taken from the ocean.
 There's the rarest shell in these parts" said the old man, holding up handful of shells which looked like black eggs with white spots. Some call them egg-shells, others nicramocs; but the right name is cypraeas Now, you'd never guess how l catch them, he said, with a keen look and laugh, as if urging on the writer to a guessing match. You give 1t up? Well, you're sensible; you'd never guess l haven't patented my scheme, but I've a mind to. You see, the egg-shells are mostly deep-water fellows-twenty, thirty, or forty feet-and being only three inches long you never see them, But they have a habit which Is well nigh fatal to 'em; they like to crawl into dark holes and corners; so I rigged up this trap" and the old beach-comber hauled | out a machine which, on general prin- ciples, would have delighted the eye of a boy. It was a bunch of dozen small oyster all fastened together by wires and in turn connected to a rope. Now" he continued. T just lower these cans down, and let 'em stay three or four days, anchored to a log, and | when haul 'em up each one has seve- ral shells in it. Here's one. you see I | lifted this morning" and the speaker held out a can still full of water The shell was clinging to the side, It's pol l ished surface. which gives it its value as a curiosity, covered with delicate membrane or envelope which the shell throws out for the purpose, while in the lower corner was a bunch of gelatinous capsules, the eggs.
 That's it." said the old man, "they crawl in to lay their eggs. That shell shows what mild climate this is, as it's a tropical shell. Here's another" holding out a handful of beautiful shells as large as the thumb-nail, as fragile as paper and colored brilliant purple that gradually merged into white. That's another tropical shell that drifts on to California shores. l get most of 'em at Santa Barbara Is- land, San Clemente and San Nicolas, but they come ashore at Catalina, too, in the late summer. You see, they float different from most shells, they float on the surface and have mass of bub- bles to hold 'em up, and to this Is at tached the eggs, so if they come in shore the wind lands 'em on the beach. | There's another curious thing about the sea-snai or ianthina. Hows that for dye?" and the shell man took out a small lady's handkerchief dyed rich purple That's from the she'll and if that ain't the original purple dye that they call lost art then I'm mistaken. That handkerchief belongs to lady up at one of the cottages. She offered me dollar if I could dye it with the shell, and there it is.
 Whats the rarest shell I have? Well, I reckon this is," and the old dealer fumbled among his boxes and pulled out fine large paper nautilus, Its perfect" he said, and they sell 'em in the stores for eight and ten dol lars. No, don't get em alive, and in twenty years work here l never saw one caught in a net; they are blown | ashore in heavy gales or are chased in by fish. You see, they live on the bot tom, crawling around like an octopus; and the shell is so light that when the animal gets tipped out, as it often does, the shell is washed ashore, and that's where I come in. I take to the beaches after every big storm and follow along at high-wa mark, and generally find l 'em way above where the wind losses
 
 luck if find one a season.
 "Abalones getting scarce? Yes, but there's stacks of 'em at San Clemente and the other islands; but the Chinese are catching 'em there. They send the shells to San Francisco and they say the dried meat goes to China. The hardest work in my business is collect ing limpets and flat shells, just the ones the people want most, as they take a beautiful polish and have all sorts of | designs. To get 'em I anchor my boat off some point and swim in, carrying my boots on my shoulders, and when get there put 'em on and wade round the rocks. The water is mostly up to my shoulders, and I have to feel in un- der the weed, sometimes completely under water, as the biggest shells don't come up; but they're beauties See that" and the old sea dog held out a flat shell, four inches across, that glis- tened and gleamed in the sunlight You see the cities and trees on it? It's a regular picture. One man said it was a mirage photographed on the shell; but that's all gammon; it just comes when you polish.
 "These big conches,' said the shell man, picking up a number, T get in box traps in deep water. take box and cover it with laths, leaving several
 holes. Then I ballast it with rocks, bait it with fish, and anchor it in two | rNf