Page:American Seashells (1954).djvu/74

 CHAPTER V

for collecting seashells are much akin to revelations of the secrets of good cooking. Everyone has his favorite methods and, despite the most expert advice one may obtain from books, experience is the surest path to success. There are, however, a number of fundamentals which will help guide the collector in obtaining a representative series of our seashells with the least trouble. The hints offered here are more in the order of how collecting problems may be solved than a revelation of how and where to find rare specimens.

The most successful collectors mix together four ingredients to obtain what appears to most of us “unusual luck” in finding good shells. These are a knowledge of the habits of mollusks, a familiarization with the physical conditions of the ocean and the seashore, a sensible choice of collecting equipment and, perhaps most important, a large proportion of perseverance. The first three of these may be acquired, to some degree at least, from books and from the advice of veteran collectors, but only keen observation in the field and many hours of trial collecting will develop satisfactory techniques. It is true, of course, that strolling the more productive beaches at certain times of year will produce encouraging results, but soon the common species have been collected and more often than not the remaining specimens are far from perfect. The moment a collector ceases to be a beachcomber and begins to search for living mollusks in their natural haunts he has opened unlimited possibilities of acquiring a remarkably beautiful and complete collection.