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The commonest of the giant clams TRIDACNA GIGAS sometimes betrays evidence of past internal trouble by the presence of a concretion of porcelain whiteness and of porcellaneous texture, but such are not to be described as pearls and to be prized as rarities only.
The large shells of some species of Tridacna would be found vertically imbedded in the solid rock, in the position in which they lived.
On getting nearer, we saw that she was playing with a little child, who was seated in a large bivalve shell full of water. It made a magnificent bath for the little black fellow, and it was larger even than the shells we had found on our island, a magnificent, specimen of the Tridacna gigas. The woman was younger and far pleasanter-looking than most of the women in the huts.
What he wanted was a vessel or a receptacle of some description in which he could heat the soup and make it somewhat more palatable; and here he remembered having passed during his morning's ramble on the beach a very large shell of the species Tridacna gigas.
Pectunculus lividus, Reeve. 73. Pectunculus pectenoides, Deshayes. 74. Avicula margaritifera, Linne. 75. Tridacna gigas, Linne. On the day of our arrival at El-Wijh I sent a hurried letter of invitation to Mohammed 'Afnan, Shaykh of the Baliyy tribe; inviting him to visit the Expedition, and to bring with him seventy camels and dromedaries.
Before our coral garden was as familiar as it is, it was said that on one of the reefs of Dunk Island there reposed a colossal clam one of the giants of the variety known to science as TRIDACNA GIGAS. So prodigious was the alleged specimen, that no one had been able to remove it, and it was dimly suggested that the occupant of the island would easily become possessed of a very marvel among molluscs.
The former is supposed to have originated from the tridacna shell, the latter from the taro. Every individual knows exactly to which clan he belongs, although there are no external signs. There is a strict rule forbidding marriage within the clan, and an offence against this law was formerly punished by death; to this day, even in Christian districts, marriage within the clan is extremely rare.
It would afford us not only one, but several meals probably, if the creature inside bore any proportion to his house. I did not know the name at the time, but I afterwards learned that it must have been a specimen of the Tridacna gigas. I have since heard that the shells themselves, without the mollusc, weigh even more than that; indeed, I afterwards saw some in use of larger size.
The tridacna were afterward procured in a safe boat, thirty of them taking the place of three tons of cement ballast, which I threw overboard to make room and give buoyancy. On August 22, the kpeting, or whatever else it was that held the sloop in the islands, let go its hold, and she swung out to sea under all sail, heading again for home.
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