216 Whelk Fishery, Greedy Feeders, Size, &c. 



For description of methods see Sect. VI. In 1899 there were 

 twenty second class boats fishing all the year round from 

 Harwich (Inspect. Ann. Rep.), and about as many from the 

 other ports taken together. The sum thus derived from the 

 whelk fishery may be roughly estimated at 25,000 per annum, 

 possibly considerably more. 



Though the whelk inhabits our entire seaboard, the estua- 

 rine mouths are its principal location. A. limited number, 

 however, come up in the shrimper's trawl-net almost to the 

 limits of the brackish water ; these usually are thrown over- 

 board. That they are abundant on the areas regularly fished 

 for may be surmised from the net proceeds mentioned. 



Reversed shells are not altogether scarce, and there are 

 several named varieties (by naturalists) of monstrous shells. 

 It is a carnivore and scavenger in the true sense of the word. 

 Most dead animal bodies, and also many living ones, are subject 

 to its voracity. Even the oyster is said to have an enemy in 

 the common whelk, though the evidence thereon is not wholly 

 satisfactory. 



The dimensions of the marketable whelk are variable, for 

 we have seen both small and large among tub-fulls in the 

 Billingsgate stalls. The usual sizes there are 3 by If, 3| by 2, 

 and up to 4 by 2j inches. We have a series before us of 25 

 collected in the Thames area, beginning with f by f inch 

 (inhabited by a hermit crab) the next 1 by f inch, the rest 

 graduating steadily and successively to the market sizes above 

 given. A few have their surface partially covered with serpulse 

 tubes and acorn barnacles, though most are tolerably clean, 

 the skin (epidermis) peeling off as they dry. 



Honeycomb masses of whelks' eggs are familiar objects 

 washed on to the sea shore. In the adult the sexes are separate. 

 They are winter and spring breeders, October and May being 

 the extremes. The young are forward, tolerably well formed, 

 with shell and operculum, ere leaving the egg. Their rate of 

 growth would seem not to be very fast, so that the larger 

 market specimens are at least several (presumably not less than 



