708 A. K Verrill — The Bermuda Islands. 



f. — Gastro2)ods: Whelks • Conchs, etc. 



The " Wilk" or West Indian Whelk. (TArona /a'ca.) .Seep. 464, 

 figure 22a. 



This mollusk was apparently referred to by Strachy in 1610, under 

 the name of Wilke : " We have taken also from under the broken 

 Rockes, Crevises,* oftentimes greater than any of our best English 

 Lobsters ; and likewise abundance of Crabbes, Oysters [Pearl oys- 

 ters], and Wilkes." 



Capt. John Smith, describing the famine of 1614-15, says : "One 

 amongst the rest hid himself in the woods, and lived only on Wilkes 

 and Land Crabs, fat and lustv, manv moneths." 



Henry May mentioned that they burned the shells of " wilkes " 

 and pieces of limestone to make cement for the seams of their 

 vessel, by mixing the lime with turtle oil. 



These and other incidental allusions to the " wilk," render it prob- 

 able that this mollusk, still known as "the whelk" or "wilk" in 

 the West Indies, and used there in many places as food, was abun- 

 dant at the time of the settlement of Bermuda and was used as food, 

 more or less. It is a shallow water species, with a large conspicuous 

 shell, and therefore easily taken. 



But no living specimens have ever been found here in modern 

 times,f so far as recorded, nor could I learn that any had been taken 

 within the memory of the oldest inhabitants. However, its shells 

 are abundant as fossils in the sand dunes and in the Aeolian limestones 

 all over the islands, where thej r had doubtless been carried on the 

 backs of the land hermit crabs (Cenobita diogenes, see fig. 22a, p. 

 464). At present these same crabs again utilize the old fossil shells, 

 when they find them weathered out and scattered loose on the sur- 

 face, as they often are. 



We also dredged up two dead, but perfect, specimens from about 

 ten feet of water, in " The Reach," at St. George's, but they may 

 have been buried under the calcareous mud many years, without 

 showing much alteration. 



Somewhat better evidence was obtained by digging in the kitchen 

 middens at Castle Island, probably deposited about 1812, in which 

 we found a few broken but unaltered shells of this species, looking 

 as if they had been broken to extract the meats. 



* This is the Bermuda Lobster (Panulirus argus), still common, but now rarely 

 found under the stones on the shore. 



f During our visit in 1901, a large number of these " whelks,'' brought alive 

 from the Bahamas, were liberated in Hamilton Harbor, by Mr. Roberts, so it 

 may become naturalized here. 



