Among these exhibits I'll mention, just for the record: an elegant royal hammer shell from the Indian Ocean, whose evenly spaced white spots stood out sharply against a base of red and brown; an imperial spiny oyster, brightly colored, bristling with thorns, a specimen rare to European museums, whose value I estimated at 20,000 francs; a common hammer shell from the seas near Queensland, very hard to come by; exotic cockles from Senegal, fragile white bivalve shells that a single breath could pop like a soap bubble; several varieties of watering-pot shell from Java, a sort of limestone tube fringed with leafy folds and much fought over by collectors; a whole series of top-shell snails--greenish yellow ones fished up from American seas, others colored reddish brown that patronize the waters off Queensland, the former coming from the Gulf of Mexico and notable for their overlapping shells, the latter some sun-carrier shells found in the southernmost seas, finally and rarest of all, the magnificent spurred-star shell from New Zealand; then some wonderful peppery-furrow shells; several valuable species of cythera clams and venus clams; the trellis wentletrap snail from Tranquebar on India's eastern shore; a marbled turban snail gleaming with mother-of-pearl; green parrot shells from the seas of China; the virtually unknown cone snail from the genus Coenodullus; every variety of cowry used as money in India and Africa; a "glory-of-the-seas," the most valuable shell in the East Indies; finally, common periwinkles, delphinula snails, turret snails, violet snails, European cowries, volute snails, olive shells, miter shells, helmet shells, murex snails, whelks, harp shells, spiky periwinkles, triton snails, horn shells, spindle shells, conch shells, spider conchs, limpets, glass snails, sea butterflies-- every kind of delicate, fragile seashell that science has baptized with its most delightful names.
S legvégül említem a legeslegritkábbat, a pompás új-zélandi sarkantyúállatot. De nem hagyhatom megemlítés nélkül a csodaszép, kénsárga tellinákat sem, s a ritkaságszámba menő cythereák és vénuszkagylók fajtáit, a napórát mímelő sugárállatokat Tranquebar partjairól, a márványosan mintázott, gyöngyház fényű papucskagylót, a Kínai-tenger papagáj formájú zöld kagylóit, a Coendullik neméhez tartozó, alig ismert kúposcsigát, a porcelánkagylókat, melyeket Indiában és Afrikában pénz gyanánt használnak, a "tengeri glóriát", Kelet-India legértékesebb kagylóját; végül a parti csigákat, a tengeri szarkalábot, a tornyoscsigát, a tutajoscsigákat, a tojáscsigát, a pápakoronát, a süvegcsigát, a bíborcsigát, a kürtcsigát, a hárfacsigát, a spanyollovast, a trombitacsigát, a korallpolipocskát, az orsócsigát, a szárnyascsigát, a csészecsigát, az üvegcsigát, a kliót - ezeket a gyönyörű, törékeny kagylókat, amelyeket bűbájos nevekre keresztelt el a tudomány.