Art,
 
I copied most of the text of that article for an exhibit on Purple Snails.
Here it is:
 
Imagine walking along the beach and suddenly finding a sea full of
violet-colored shells floating in on the tide and literally turning the
sand purple. The following is an account  by Charles T. Simpson written in
The Nautilus (a scientific periodical) in A pril, 1897.
"In January, 1883, I was on a large schooner bound for Spanish Honduras,
and we stopped at Key West, where I spent one of the most delightful weeks
of my life gathering [land snails] in the thick, thorny tropical scrub, or
Strombs and bright Tellinas and blending Neritas and a hundred other
interesting forms along the south shore. We were to sail about noon on
Sunday, but I could not resist the temptation to take one last look at the
places where I had spent so many happy hours, so after breakfast I wandered
through the city and out to the beach.
"Before I reached it I noticed that as far as the eye could see, it was a
mass of the most intense, glowing violet color, and on coming up to it was
astonished to find that this color came from untold millions of Ianthina,
which had been washed up in the night, for when I had left the beach the
evening before at dusk, not one was to be seen. To say that they lined the
shore gives no idea of the real truth. Everywhere, from below low water to
highest tide mark they were piled up, in most places, over shoe-top deep,
and in the hollows of rocks one could have waded in among them up to his
knees - shell, animal and float all of a vivid purpleŠ They were all dead -
a kind of slimy mass - and they somehow looked pitifulŠ
"I had brought no basket or sack or anything to collect in, but I could not
bear to go away and leave that vast bed of treasures without taking at
least a few with me. I searched in vain for a box or tin canŠ I took out my
handkerchief, knotted the corners, andŠ filled it with shells, animals and
all, as many as it would hold. Then I took off my straw hat and filled it,
and that would not satisfy me, for as I wandered along I found so many fine
specimens that I began to put them into my pockets, and I did not leave the
shore until every pocket was bursting full.
"I had on a linen coat and white duck pants; the day was hot and it seemed
to me that those Ianthinas melted. In a little while streaks of glowing
violet began to show down my clothes; I felt a clammy, wet, uncomfortable,
feeling clear through to my skin, and my shoes were filled with purple
liquid. By the time I reached the city I looked like an Indian in war
paint, and I have no doubt that the people of Key West, who were just going
to church, thought I was a lunatic, and perhaps they were not far from
right.
"At last I reached the schooner, took off and threw away my suit, which was
utterly ruined, and got my precious mollusks into sea water to soak,
although at least half of them were broken, yet, when I cleaned them out, I
had the satisfaction of counting up over 2,000 good shells."
 
                  Shell Collecting Trips Around the World
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                                  Peggy Williams
                                   Shell Elegant
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