204 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSCA. 



cut in the solid sandstone rock, in which shells seem 

 to have been crushed. They were perfectly smooth on 

 the inside, and many of them shaped like a modern 

 iron pot, broad and flat at the bottom, and narrowing 

 towards the top. Many of these were filled with a 

 breccia of shells, and he supposes that all the shells 

 were of one kind, probably Murex trunculus* 



Dr. Tristram in ' The Land of Israel/ mentions 

 finding traces at Tyre of its ancient trade and manufac- 

 tures, and that amongst the rubbish thrown out in the 

 excavations were numberless fragments of glass, and 

 whole " kitchen-middens " of shells, crushed and 

 broken, the owners of which had once supplied the 

 famed Tyrian purple dye. All these shells were of one 

 species, and that one of the most plentiful on the coast, 

 the Murex brandaris. It has frequently been stated 

 that Murex trunculus is the true original of the Tyrian 

 dye, and it is very possible that it may have been also 

 used for that purpose. But Dr. Tristram adds, " While 

 we noticed only a few broken specimens of M. trun- 

 culus scattered about, the compact masses of broken 

 shells, and which, therefore, had most probably been 

 used in manufacture, and not merely for food,, were 

 exclusively of the former species." 



In Africa, the island of Meninx (now called Gerbee, 

 in the Gulf of Cabes) was famed for its purple, as 

 well as parts of Gsetulia that border on the ocean ; 

 and in Europe, the best came from the coast of 

 Laconia. 



Cornelius Nepos speaks of the Tarentine red ; and 



Hardouin remarks that in his time were still to be seen 



the remains of the ancient dyeing-houses at Tarentum, 



* W. Smith, ' Dictionary of the Bible/ vol. iii. p. 1581, article ■ Tyre.> 



