194 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSCA. 



large cans to Hull, and other places for the cod-fishery. 

 This bait-fishing lasts about a fortnight. 



The fishermen know whelks by the following names, 

 viz., Couches or Buckies; and at Youghal they call 

 them Googawns, and Cuckoo shells. 



In ' Popular History of the Mollusca/ by Miss Roberts, 

 she mentions this species of shell being used in North 

 Wales as trumpets by the farmers, for calling their 

 labourers ; and shells of a similar kind are also used 

 iu Muscovy and Lithuania by the herdsmen for col- 

 lecting their cattle, horses, mules, goats, and sheep. 

 The Italian herdsmen use them also. Dr. William 

 Russell tells us, that at Casamicciola, in the Island of 

 Ischia, morning, noon, and night, the air was filled with 

 the monotonous notes of conch shells, sounded by the 

 watchers over the vineyards and gardens, to scare away 

 thieves and birds.* 



hi some parts of Staffordshire the farmers call up 

 their cattle by means of a horn or trumpet. In Tahiti 

 shells were also used as trumpets — a species of murex 

 being the kind generally employed for that purpose. 

 The largest shells were selected, sometimes a foot in 

 diameter at the mouth. A perforation, about an inch 

 in diameter, was made near the apex of the shell, in 

 which was inserted a bamboo cane, three feet in length, 

 secured by being bound to the shell, the aperture 

 rendered air-tight by the outsides of it being cemented 

 with a resinous gum from the bread-fruit tree. These 

 shells were blown when any procession marched to the 

 temple, and at other religious ceremonies; besides being 

 used by the herald, and on board the native fleets. The 



* ' Memories of Ischui,' ' Nineteenth Century,' Sept. 1883. 



