86 DR johnston''s descriptive catalogue of the 



them, for many of the larger Limpets form for themselves a hollow 

 place in our sandstone and limestone rocks, to live in apparently for 

 life, secure from the tempest of waves that twice a day lashes over 

 them. These hollow places arc common on our coast : they are a few 

 lines in depth, of the size and shape of the rim of the shell, and are 

 excavated, perhaps, by long maceration of tlie soft muciferous foot 

 upon the rock, assisted by partial rotatory and vermicular motions of 

 the same organ. That it secretes any solvent has not been proved. 

 Our fishermen distinguish three kinds of Limpets t viz. 



(1) Yawds, which liave a tough leathery foot of a cream-yellow colour, 



and tentacula of the same colour but a shade lighter. The shell is 

 coarsely ribbed, often marked with coloured rays, the rim of the aper- 

 ture uneven, unequally crenulate, and marked with dark and white 

 alternating spots or bands of very unequal sizes, but the white marks 

 are always opposite to or correspond with the ribs or elevated ridges 

 on the outside. (Broim's Illustr. pi. 37, fig. 12, and 14.) The Yawds 

 are found near low water-mark, and are said to be less common than 

 the other varieties. They are almost worthless as a bait. 



(2) ScRooFS, which for bait are as little valued as the preceding. 



The foot is soft, greenish-grey, or olive-coloured and streaked, encir- 

 cled with a paler margin ; the sides of the snail bluish-grey ; the snout 

 cream-yellow, with olivaceous tentacula often dusky about the tips. 

 The shell is strongly ribbed and rather vividly streaked in general with 

 yellow or red, appealing especially on the inner side. (Brown s Illustr. 

 pi. 37, fig. 15.) This variety is found mostly on the dry rocks covered 

 with JBalani, and in the shallow pools amidst these rocks, where it is 

 often covered with a forest of Corallina officinalis. 



(3) The Limpet or Lempecks. These have a rather thin shell of a greenish 



colour, the external surface even and obsoletely ribbed or merely 

 striated. (Brown's Illustr. pi. 37, fig. 17.) The foot of the snail is a 

 wine-yellow, or approaching that colour, with a yellowish edge; the 

 sides very light blueish grey ; the snout of the same colour as the edge 

 of the foot ; and the tentacula have dusky tips. This variety affords 

 the bait so extensively gathered for the capture of all white fish. 

 From constant warfare, their numbers have of late years greatly de- 

 creased ; there is not now one out of ten that there were 20 years 

 ago, and the collecting of them has become consequently tedious 

 enough. The bait-gatherer, for picking them from the rocks and pre- 

 paring them for the line, has 8d per day, but very few fishermen need 

 to hire, there being hands enow in general out of his own " sma' fa- 

 mily.'' The number taken during the year is prodigious. Each boat 

 requires, I am told, for the baiting of its lines fully 360 scores. From 

 Berwick alone, there are 1 1 boats daily occupied in the white fishery, 

 and consequently 79,200 limpets arc daily needed for their supply. 

 Now, suppose that the lines are baited only 150 days in the year with 

 them, and we have an annual consumption of 11,880,000 ! This I am 

 given to understand is a low calculation of the real destruction ; and 

 how amazing must be the productiveness of a creature that, unpro- 

 tected (unlike the oyster), affords such a supply ! And to get at the 

 full extent of this from our coast there is to be taken into the calcu- 

 lation the boats furnished with it from Holy-Island, Spittal, Ross, 

 Burnmouth, Eyemouth, Coldingham, Redheugh, and Cockburn'spath, 

 amounting in all probably to not less than 50. 

 The Limpet is happily never used as food with us. The shell is often used 

 to apply Fuller's earth, and similar remedies, to the sore nipples of 

 nurses ; hence probably the origin of " Pap-shell,'' which Lister tells 

 us is one of its English names. 



