OCCURRENCE OF CREPIDULA FORNICATA, L. 353
I asked the poor old man who was in charge of this
miscellaneous stall (the things were all laid out on the roadway)
what it was; and he explained that it was used for getting the
bark off birch trees.
This I pretended to doubt, calling attention to the bit of
iron: whereupon he gave me an object-lesson as to its use,
cutting an imaginary slit with the knife blade, then reversing the
implement and inserting the sharpened end, running it up and
down, thus wedging off the bark, and of course naturally pro-
ducing the transverse striae to which Mr. Read's remarks in the
Essex Naturalist, p. 312, refer. I asked the stall-keeper the
price of this bone, and after a discussion with his wife, which
really was as to how high he could go with safety, he nervously
suggested ten sous: and I never saw a man more astonished
than he when I paid it. 1 asked if they used them now, and he
said, "No; they had not been used for many years."
Birch bark is still used for small boxes, &c, and especially
for snuff and tobacco boxes, many of which are very artistic.
From my own experience, I feel sure that in many an old-
world continental town may still be picked up primitive objects
and tools, which are direct descendants from those of the Stone
Age, but which are fast disappearing before the relentless advance
of cheap machine-made appliances.
FURTHER NOTES ON THE OCCURRENCE
OF CREPIDULA FORNICATA, L., IN ESSEX
WATERS.
By WALTER CROUCH, F.Z.S.
AS recorded in the proceedings of the meeting on May 21st,
Dr. Laver presented to the Museum a very fine specimen
of Crepidula fornicata which had been dredged up attached to
a large stone, from the River Colne. The specimen was living
when Dr. Laver received it, and had a mass of ova inside the
shell. At the meeting Mr. Crouch made some observations
concerning the mollusc, which are embodied in the following
summary: —
Since the publication of my notes in February, 1894, on the
introduction of this species into our native fauna (see Essex
Naturalist, vol. viii., pp. 36-38), I have received, or personally