IV MOLLUSCA AS FOOD FOR MAN 



103 



delicacies, while the natives also eat the great Murex and Pyrula^ 

 and even the huge Area gra7idis, which lives embedded in the 

 liquid river mud. 



The common littoral bivalves seem to be eaten in nearly all 

 countries except our own, and it is therefore needless to enu- 

 merate them. The Gasteropoda, whose habits are scarcely so 

 cleanly, seem to require a bolder spirit and less delicate palate 

 to venture on their consumption. 



The Malays of the East Indian islands eat Telescoinum 

 fuscum and Pyrazus palustris, which abound in the mangrove 

 swamps. They throw them on their wood fires, and when they 

 are sufficiently cooked, break off the top of the spire and suck 

 the animal out through the opening. Haliotis they take out of 

 the shell, string together, and dry in the sun. The lower classes 

 in the Philippines eat Area inaequivalvis^ boiling them as we do 

 mussels.^ In the Corean islands a species of Monodonta and 

 another of Mytilus are quite peppery, and bite the tongue ; our 

 own Helix revelata^ as I can vouch from personal experience, has 

 a similar flavour. Fusus eolosseus^ Rapana hezoar^ and Purpura 

 luteostoma are eaten on the southern coasts of China ; Stromhus 

 luhuanus^ Turho ehrysostomus^ Trochus nilotieus, and Patella 

 testudinaria, by the natives of New Caledonia; Stromhus gigas 

 and Livonap>iea in the West Indies ; Turho niger and Concholepas 

 peruvianus on the Chilian coasts : four species of Stromhus and 

 Nerita^ one each of Purpura and Turho, besides two Tridaena 

 and one Hippopus^ by the natives of British New Guinea. West 

 Indian negroes eat the large Chitons which are abundant on 

 their rocky coasts, cutting off and swallowing raw the fleshy 

 foot, which they call ' beef,' and rejecting the viscera. Dried 

 cephalopods are a favourite Chinese dish, and are regularly ex- 

 ported to San Francisco, where the Chinamen make them into 

 soup. The ' Challenger ' obtained two species of Sepia and two 

 of Loligo from the market at Yokohama. 



The insipidity of fresh-water Mollusca renders them much 

 less desirable as a form of food. Some species of Unionidae, 

 however, are said to be eaten in France. Anodonta edulis is 

 specially cultivated for food in certain districts of China, and 

 the African Aetheriae are eaten by negroes. Navieella and 

 Neritina are eaten in ^lauritius, Ampullaria and Neritina in 

 Guadeloupe, and Paludina in Cambodia. 



1 A. Adams, Voyage of the ' Samarang,'' ii. p. 308. 



