10 



cold season — which however was proved impossible by the experiments with 

 hive-traps — tliey could be used iu great quautities on the west coast. There the 

 fisliermen use immense quantities of Hviug mussels, which are fished in the Ise- 

 fjord or in the eastern part of the Limfjord and eau be taken there iu an almost 

 unhmited uumber. 



Thus I have not been able to get the whelks used iu sufficient quantities 

 in the summer. To iuvestigate whether they might possibly be used for other 



purposes, for example, as food 

 for man, pigs, fowls etc, I have 

 had them tested by Professor K. 

 Rørdam, and he reports that 

 the whelks dried at 100 " contain 

 about 79 7o sliell and ca. 21 »/o 

 soft parts — thus, only Y^th. Of this 

 fifth, however, ''/loths consist of 

 albumiuous matters or related 

 nitrogenous compounds. As the 

 weight of the living whelks is 

 reduced on drying to somewhat 

 under the half, it is seen that 

 the predomiuant iugredients are 

 lime and water. 



The large whelks fished in 

 England are eaten in great quan- 

 tities, for example in London, but 

 I cousider it impossible to get 

 them used in this way in our 

 country. On this account I endea- 

 voured to get them prepared as 

 food for fowls or dogs at one of 

 the Copenhagen factories, where 

 such food is made; but as the 

 whelks became rotten so 

 quickly in the warm season 

 that the steamers refused 



Fig. 6. 



to take them on board, this experiment also failed.. 



This rapid decompositiou of the whelks in the warm season prevents any 

 use of them except locally, and I considered it inexpedient and too expensive at 

 the present stage of the matter, to have a drying-factory built iu Thisted. Nor 

 have I tried on a large scale to get them cooked and used as pigs' food, as ex- 

 perience has shown that the removal of the shells must be performed with 

 great care to prevent the stomachs of the pigs being wounded by the sharp 

 pieces of shells, especially by the central spiral inside the shell; this is difficult to 

 remove except by using the fingers to every cooked and crushed whelk. The 

 result is, that all these experiments, which have taken up nnich of my time, have 

 not succeeded, at least for the time being. Apart from the local use of the 



