44 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSCA. 



send him the shells after his meal, he might make his 

 fortune. In the British Museum a fishing-net is ex- 

 hibited, from the Friendly Islands, with cockle-shells 

 fastened on to it to sink it, instead of leads. 



Cockle-shells are used as cultch for the oyster spat 

 to adhere to; they are thrown on to the breeding 

 beds ; and they sow them during the time the oyster 



spat are floating about in the sea Mr. Frank 



Buckland, in his examination before the Select Com- 

 mittee on Oyster Fisheries, 1876, adds that "Spat 

 are especially fond of cockles, and that the great ad- 

 vantage of cockle-shells cultch is, that the oysters will 

 grow up in handsome bunches, they can then be 

 broken off, and they will grow into proper size and 

 shape, and become handsome and fit for market." 



Major Hayes, Inspector of Irish Fisheries, in his 

 report on the principal Oyster Fisheries of France, 

 made in 1878, noticed at Arcachon, a new form of 

 collector for spat, viz., cockle-shells strung closely to- 

 gether upon wire, a hole being made in the shell near 

 the hinge ; the wire is run through, and when strung 

 they are placed at the proper time in situations favour- 

 able for catching spat. They are kept about three 

 inches above the mud by means of pegs placed at 

 intervals, to which the wire is attached, and they ap- 

 peared to succeed admirably, as when a long string, 

 or chaplet, as it is called at Arcachon, was lifted, every 

 shell was covered with young oysters. 



Cockle-shells are also used for making garden 

 walks, and good lime is made from them when they 

 are calcined. 



Pepys, in his ' Diary/ mentions the care with which 

 the ground in the Mall was kept for the game of " Pall 



