234 Mr. Patterson on the Common Lirnpet, 



at one penny per quart*. In a large-sized can containing 

 twenty quarts, the weight of the limpets was 22 lbs., that of 

 the whelks 12 lbs. Whether the proportion of '^ whelks ^^ may 

 not have been greater than usual is uncertain. If however 

 they constituted as in this case more than one third of the en- 

 tire, we shall perhaps not be far wrong in stating, that the 

 weight of whelks and limpets, as removed from the shore this 

 season, could not have been less than forty tons. 



As a natural sequel to the preceding observations, it may 

 be interesting to glance at the consumption of some marine 

 testacea as food in the adjoining county of Down. At Holly- 

 wood, four miles from Belfast, the coast is destitute of rocks, 

 and consequently of limpets, but their absence is amply com- 

 pensated by very extensive beds of muscles [Mytilus edulis), 

 which supply an important article of diet to the poorer classes 

 in the village. The shells are in general allowed to accumulate 

 about their habitations until they become sufficiently nume- 

 rous to fill a cart. They are then sold to lime-burners, who 

 spread them on the lime at the top of their kilns, and consider 

 that when thus placed they facilitate the combustion. Large 

 quantities of muscles are carried by the poor venders into Bel- 

 fast ; and sometimes a boat laden at the muscle-bank, will dis- 

 charge her cargo on one of the tow^n wharfs, whence it is carted 

 off and prepared for market. 



At Bangor, six miles nearer to the entrance of the Lough, 

 the shore becomes rocky with the occasional intervention of 

 sandy bays. No one here makes a business of selling hmpets, 

 but many poor people are glad to collect them, to eke out 

 their scanty repast. At Donaghadee, four miles distant, they 

 are found in large quantities. Nor are they used merely as 

 an article of human food ; they become of some importance 

 in the economy of the farm-yard as feeding for swine. After 

 being removed from the shells, they are thrown back into 

 the water in which they have been boiled ; and with the ad- 

 dition of a little oaten meal, are regarded as nutritive and 

 highly salutary. To such an extent does this conviction pre- 

 vail among the small farmers living along the coast, that even 



* Ten large sacks filled with " whelks " were lately landed on the quay 

 at Belfast. My informant did not inquire from what part of the coast they 

 had been collected. 



