174 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSUA. 



periwinkle. At Naples they make them into soup, and 

 I am told it is an excellent dish. At Eastbourne we 

 have often seen the Irish reapers come down to the 

 shore and eat the limpets raw which they had knocked 

 off the rocks with their knives. The poorer classes at 

 Eastbourne also eat them constantly, the children 

 collecting them at low tide from the rocks. Mr. 

 Patterson, while residing, in 1837, near the town of 

 Jjarne, Co. Antrim, endeavoured to form some idea of 

 the quantity of the common limpet taken from the 

 rocks on that part of the coast, and used as food ; and 

 he had reason to believe that the weight of the boiled 

 fish was above eleven tons. Limpets ready boiled 

 are regularly sold in the fishmarket at Truro, at Is. per 

 quart ; and at Plymouth they gather great numbers of 

 them (especially from the breakwater), as well as in the 

 Isle of Man, where they are known by the name of 

 " flitters;" and in Scotland the juice of these shell- 

 fishes is mixed with oatmeal. In the Feroe Isles they 

 call them " flia; " and in ' Life in Normandy ' (vol. i. 

 p. 192), we are told "that limpets are constantly 

 eaten by the poor ; and that at Granville the children use 

 a square-pointed knife, with a thick back, for getting 

 them off the rocks; some having, in addition, small 

 wooden hammers ; others only a stone in their right 

 hands. The edge of the knife was applied always on 

 one side, and never at the top of the shell ; a little sharp 

 tap was given, either with the hammer or stone, and 

 the fish fell at once." This reminds us of Hermippus, 

 who says : 



" And beating down the limpets from the rocks, 

 They snnke a noise like castanets/'* 



* Athi'iiaeus, 'Deipu.' bk. xiv. 39. 



