192 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSC A. 



the extremity with a longitudinal ruouth, armed with 

 two strong cartilaginous lips, encloses the tongue, and 

 a great part of the oesophagus. The tongue is armed 

 with short spines, and acting in concert with the hard 

 lips, which can be opened or shut, or strongly pressed 

 together, it forms a sort of rasp or auger, by which very 

 hard substances are rapidly perforated; and then the 

 tongue being protruded, the hooked spines with which it 

 is armed, are admirably fitted for the collection of food. " 

 Whelks are taken in great numbers in wicker baskets 

 baited with offal, and Pliny describes the taking of 

 " purple fish " by a similar method, viz., in a kind of 

 osier kipe, called Nassis, baited with cockles.* Billings- 

 gate market is chiefly supplied from Harwich and Hull, 

 and some of the steamers from the North bring six or 

 seven tons at a time.f Mr. Charles Harding, of King's 

 Lynn, informs us that the principal sources of the 

 supply of whelks " on that part of the coast are as 

 follows : Saltfleet, about twenty miles from Grimsby, 

 Sherringham, near Cromer, Lynn Deeps, Docking 

 Channel, Blakeney Coast, Wells, Boston Deeps, Bran- 

 caster, Thornham, and Huustanton. The Lynn fishery 

 supplies about 20,000 bags, or 1250 tons of whelks a 

 year. . . . The average amount paid for them before 

 the expense of boiling and carriage is about 10,000. 

 The Great Grimsby fishery supplies about 150,000 

 wash of whelks annually. A wash contains 21 quarts 

 and a pint, and the average price for the season would 

 run about 36-. a wash, or a total of 22,500."J 



* Pliny's ' Nat. Hist.' vol. ii. bk. ix. p. 445. 



f ' Curioities of Food,' p. 345. 



+ ' Molluscs, Mussels, Whelks,' &c , by Charles Harding. ' Papers of 

 the Conferences held iu connection with the Great International Fisheries 

 Exhibition.' 



