200 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSCA. 



very nourishing, and easy of digestion. The Creole 

 gardeners use the shells of the Laaibis or Strumitis 

 gigas, to place round their flower beds, and they are 

 also used for making lime, and the price per 10U0 is 

 from forty to fifty francs.* 



The manufacture of shell cameos is said to be of 

 Sicilian origin, and has been carried on at Rome since 

 1805, and in Paris it was commenced by an Italian 

 about twenty-five or thirty years ago, and a larger 

 number of shell cameos are made in Paris than in Italy, f 



The German name for the whelk is very appropriate, 

 viz., Trompetenschncclce, or Kinkhorn. In Anglo-Saxon 

 whelk is Weolc, but weolc is said to mean that which 

 gives the purple dye (therefore it would apply better to 

 the dog-whelk, Buccinum lapillus, or Purpura lapillus, 

 which yields a purple dye) ; thus, embroidered with 

 purple is weolc-hasn-hewen ; scarlet dye is iveolc-read. 

 In 1684 Purpura lapillus, the dog-whelk, was employed 

 for dyeing linen in Ireland ; and Neumann says that 

 the purple-fish was also found on the coasts of Ireland, 

 and that some persons made considerable profit by 

 marking linen with its juices. 



The shell, which is very hard, is broken by a smart 

 blow, taking care not to crush the body of the fish 

 within. After picking off the broken pieces, there 

 appears a white vein or reservoir, lying transversely in 

 a little furrow near the head. This being carefully 

 taken out, and characters drawn with it, or its viscid 

 juice squeezed upon linen or silk, the part immediately 

 acquires, on being exposed to the sun, a pale yellowish 



* ' De l'Utilite de certains Mollusques Marius de la Guadeloupe et de 

 la Martinique/ par AI. Beau. 



f ' Dictionary of Terms in Art,' by F. W. Fairholt, F.S.A. 



