Salt Lake Herald | 1891-04-18 | Page 6 | The Polish of the Cowry Shell

The Polish of the Cowry Shell The cowry eggshell or Cypraa is represented repre-sented on this coast but the finest specimens speci-mens come from southern waters It is the common shell of the New England mantelpiece where with the ten commandments com-mandments or the constitution of the United States carved upon its back it sits in silent protest against poor taste and the despoliation of an otherwise beautiful creature It is generally supposed that the shell has been artificially polished perfect per-fect is the luster of the surface but this is a mistake as I have taken them from their native haunts by diving fifteen or twenty feet down and the polish was perfect In this way I observed their method of preserving the polish When in the water and moving about the shell was completely complete-ly covered by a fleshy envelope thrown out by the animal which kept it as spotless asa as-a This is necessary as I found the greater number in dead coral rode in the breakers of the reef or at the base of living coral upon which they appeared to feed Cor San Francisco Chronicle