208 Sizes and Numbers of Cockles. 



1 \ inches thick. This was not a solitary example, for there were 

 very many such, and quite a pile only a trifle smaller. They 

 were eight or nine years old as indicated by growth marks ; 

 supported by the men's statement that it had been eight years 

 previously since cockles were gathered on the same ground. 

 Search in another cockler's shell-mound for the most diminutive 

 that had underwent cooking, we discovered a very few of these 

 dimensions : J inch across, \ inch long, and a trine over J inch 

 thick. But the ordinary smallest size in this lot were barely 

 1 inch crosswise, just over f inch long, and somewhat less 

 than | inch in thickness. The most of these last were two and 

 three years old. The batch were from the Grain Spit, solid, 

 meaty little fellows. From this ground all the cockles, how- 

 ever old (like the mussels in the channel outside), are never 

 known to attain any considerable size. Probably the average 

 size of the summer cockles, when the men are pressed for 

 quantity to meet sales, may be taken as 1} inch across, 1 J inch 

 long, and above f inch thick. Of course there are many above 

 this. 



Compare samples from Lynn (The Wash) procured by us, on 

 sale at Billingsgate. The maximum was 1J by \\ diameters 

 and 1 inch thick. The minimum was 1 by f diameters and 

 | inch thick. This last very nearly corresponded with a longish 

 series from various parts of the Lancashire coast taken through- 

 out the year (see Rep. for 1894, L. S. F. Labor.). According to 

 the Lancashire District bye-laws, the official gauge as a mini- 

 mum breadth (i.e., thickness supra) is of f inch in the fresh 

 living state. But as Johnstone (I.e.) has observed, and his 

 words are strictly applicable to our Thames cockles, "the ratio 

 of length to lateral breadth in the cockle is of course variable 

 within certain limits." Hence the standard of size is purely 

 arbitrary, oldish specimens which have freely bred being no 

 bigger than many their juniors. 



Taken in a broad sense, cockles around Kent and Essex are 

 abundant on the whole. Nor does there seem to be any falling 



