LETTER I. 9 



Spawn, and pretty firmly fixed clofe in all the 

 fmooth Partitions between thofe parallel Lines 

 of Holes. We break the Shells till we have got 

 as much of the Fifli as will fill two or three of 

 the largeft, which are each as big as my two 

 Fifls : Then we feafon it pretty highly, as we do 

 Turtle or Tortoife, and fet them with their 

 fharp pointed Darts on (as they came out of the 

 Sea,) over a gentle Wood-coal Fire, half burnt 

 to aflies, where it ftands till it is fufficlently 

 ilewed : But in my opinion, it eats far too 

 luiliioufly. I faw feveral of their broken Shells 

 upon the Coaft oi Lincolnfiire -, and have been 

 inform.ed, that the Fifliermen at Ly7in in Norfolk^ 

 and on moft of our Englijh Coafts, do frequent- 

 ly take them up in their Dragging Nets. I had 

 almoft forgot to mention the Variety of Cockle- 

 shells I fent, that refemble our Ejiglifi ones in 

 Shape, though infinitely furpaffing them in beau- 

 teous Colours, and fome of which are on the 

 outfide far rougher than a Nutmeg-grater, but 

 fliine like the beft polifhed Marble : We do 

 not eat them -, and to Ipeak truth, I never faw 

 one of them alive. You have there too a Fiih's 

 Shell called a Moon : It is round and as broad 

 as my hand, the middle being as thick as two 

 Crown Pieces, and falling down with a gentle 

 Slope quite to the Edges where it is no thicker 

 than Half a Crown : From the Center in the top 



you 



