EDIBLE SNAILS. 45 



Sepia we have it recorded that its flesh is tender and plea- 

 sant and digestible, and good also for the bowels. Alexis, a 

 comic writer, describes the proper mode of dressing it. The 

 cook says, " I Avill chop off the legs and fins of some of them 

 to boil ; and having cut up the rest of the body into many 

 small squares, and rubbed them with a little salt, while the 

 guests are at supper, I will serve them up hissing hot in the 

 fryingpan."* I suspect that even these luscious details may 

 not overcome your English repugnance to feed upon such a 

 bizarre and ugly class of animals, although I have been 

 assured by some venturesome experimentalists that our 

 native exemplars make a good soup, and are very palatable 

 in a more solid form. Of Loligo vulgaris, Mr. Couch 

 attests that they are "excellent food, bearing a considerable 

 resemblance to tripe ; " and this he says of those that fre- 

 quent the shores of Cornwall. -f- By most eastern nations 

 their indigenous Cephalopods are esteemed : they may be 

 seen exposed for sale in the bazaars throughout India, j; in 

 China, and in Japan ; and a kind of Octopus furnishes the 

 Japanese wath " a common Soccano or side dish," which is 

 eaten either fresh, boiled, or pickled. § 



The Tunicata are to all outward appearance very unfit 

 for the table ; and I know but one of the class in which 

 man has sought to indulge his caprice. This is the 

 Piuri of. South America, which is eaten either roasted or 

 boiled, and has a taste similar to that of the lobster. Great 

 quantities are annually dried for exportation ; and in the 

 interior it brings a great price, being considered a very 

 powerful stimulant. The outer skin is coriaceous, and di- 

 vided into separate cells by means of strong membranes : 

 in each of these, in a detached state, is formed the Piuri. 

 It is about the size of a large cherry, which it much re- 

 sembles in colour. || 



The list of the terrestrial culinary species is a little, and 

 only a little, more extensive. Several species of snails 

 (Helix) are eaten, of which Draparnaud says, the H. nati- 

 coides is most tender and delicate, the best tasted and 



* The student will find all that the ancients have written of edible cuttle- 

 fish in Aldrovandus, Opera, v. 38. 



+ Cornish Fauna. 82. Mr. Couch's comparison reminds us of the origin 

 of the English name, Cuttlefish. ISultcI, in German, signifies tripe ; and 

 the resemblance of the Octopus to tripe is obvious. lSuttclfisc5,liIfCltfisrTj, 

 i!Hcer=Bl)inne (Sea-spider), and iPoIUuttel, are the German names of the 

 Cephalopods. 



I Bennett's Wand. New S. Wales, i. 344. 



^ Ksempfer's Japan, i. 137. 



fl Stevenson's South America, i. 124. 



