360 SUPPLEMENT 
before they have cast this spawn, they do so in the baskets in 
which they are put, and the narrow space in which they are 
enclosed merely gives to the mass of the wax the form of a 
cluster of grapes.” 
Although Aristotle has pretended that in these animals, 
there is no generation, properly so called, but that they spring 
from the earth, it is evident that the,above description agrees 
to the eggs of the purpurz, which consequently resemble 
greatly those of the buccinum undatum in buccinum proper. 
““ We distinguish,” continues the Stagyrite, “ many species 
of purpure ; accordingly there are some large, as those of 
the promontory of Sigetum, and small, as those of the Kuripus 
and the coasts of Caria. In general those which are fished 
for in gulfs are large and of unequal surface; some of them 
weigh as much as a mina.” The colour which they furnish, 
named by Aristotle flower, (avoc) is most generally black, 
though sometimes red, and small in quantity. On shores, and 
around promontories, they are small, and their liquor is red. 
In places exposed to the north, it is generally black, and red 
in southern aspects. It is never of less value than when the 
purpure have cast their spawn, accordingly they are fished 
for in spring, at the very moment when they are getting rid of 
it. They are otherwise taken by means of baits composed of 
tainted flesh, or of small fishes, and without a net; but as they 
often fall back into the water, after having been drawn out of 
it, to avoid this inconvenience the fishermen place drag-nets 
underneath and around the bait, so that if they should happen 
to fall, which they do easily, when satiated, (and it is difficult 
to pluck them away) they are not lost. They then leave them 
in the drag-nets, with which they continue to take others 
until there is a sufficient quantity for use. To extract the 
fluid from them, they remove, at least in the larger species, the 
animal from its shell, and then take the part situated between 
the neck and the liver or vein; but as for the smaller indivi- 
