MOLLCSCA. 171 



of a beaatiful brownish colour, valued as objects of curiosity, 

 but too expensive for general use, the price of a pair of gloves 

 on the spot being about six shillings, and that of a pair of 

 stockinirs, eleven.* 



But all the bivalves of this class are not destitute of organs 

 specially adapted for locomotion. The "foot" of the common 

 Cockle is an example of tiie contrary. By means of this 

 instrument, the animal can, with ease, bury itself in the sand. 

 In some of those bivalves the creature excavates its dwellmg 

 in nnul, and, furnished with a tubular apparatus, thus jiceps up 

 its communication with the water above, and feels no want of 

 either respiration or nourishment. The foot, in its structure, 

 "almost exactly resembles the tongue of a quadruped, being 

 entirely made up of layers of muscles crossing each other at 

 various angles; the external layers being circular or oblique 

 in their disposition, while the internal strata are disposed 

 longitudinally." t 



Perhaps this is the place where we may best direct the 

 attention of the reader to the vast importance of the marine 

 Mollusca of our coast, as an article of food. As such they 

 find their way into the dwellings of the rich, and are prized 

 as a cheap and wholesome article of diet in the cabins of the 

 poor. If it were possible to obtain from each locality some 

 tabular returns of the number of persons employed in collect- 

 big " shell-fish," to use the common appellation, and of the 

 average weight which each individual procured, we doubt not 

 that the result would be so great as to excite astonishment. 

 While residing, in July, 1837, near the town of Larne, 

 County Antrim, we endeavoured to form some calculation of 

 the qitantity of the common Limpet taken from the rocks about 

 that part of the coast, and used as food, and had reason to 

 believe that the weight of the boiled "fish" was above eleven 

 tons.J The weight, as carried from the beach, was, however, 

 much greater, as there is to be added that of the shell, and 

 of a small quantity of sea-water which it contained. Whelks 

 or Periwinkles {Turbo littoreits, Linn.) were also collected at 

 the same time ; and thus made the probable weight of these 

 two kinds of shell-fish as taken from one locality, iu a single 



' Dr. Johnston. Mag. Nnt. Hist. vol. iii. page 2.57. 

 t Jones's Outline, page 381. 



X Vide paper " On the Common Limpet as an Article of Food." 

 Annji'.s Nat. Hist. vol. iii. June, 1839. 



