Whelks Breeding and Growth, their Consumption. 217 



five to six) years old. It is common knowledge that whelks 

 are a taking bait, and much used in the North Sea cod fishery. 

 As an esculent, curiously enough they are less partaken of at 

 the seaside than in London their consumption at the East 

 End, boiled and pickled, being something enormous.* 



The BED or HARD WHELK (Fusus antiquus). We place this 

 under the Whelks, for as one of such it is known commercially, 

 although ipso facto it belongs to an allied but different family, 

 namely, the Muricidae. The Billingsgate name is Almond or 

 Red Whelk ; at Liverpool, Hard Whelk. Conchologists know 

 them as Spindle Shells, and class them apart from the whelk 

 on account of slight structural difference, though to the 

 ordinary observer they are very like each other. Much of 

 what has been said of Buccinnm, its fishery, habits, even size, 

 &c., applies to Fusus. The latter, however, are more a deeper 

 sea dweller, and their egg cases do not exhibit identity with 

 the former. A large percentage of the Bamsgate and Harwich 

 catch of whelks are of this species (F. antiquus). A slender 

 kind, F. gracilis, has been got sparingly on our coasts, and 

 perchance sent to market, though said to be frequently rejected 

 there. Males of it are said to be the most numerous. 



MOLLUSKS AS BAIT, FOOD OF FISHES, &c. 



The presence in multitude of certain minor shell-fish on our 

 stretch of sands and mud is one of the piscine attractions to 

 our waters. Subjoined is a passing notice of a few of them 

 and others used as bait, &c., or otherwise destructive in habit. 



Sand and Mud Dwellers. (a) The SOLENS or RAZOR SHELLS, 

 alias the elongated double-shelled Spout fishes, are represented 

 by three species. These are Solen ensis, S. siliqua and S. vagina : 

 size, straightness or slight curvature of shell chiefly distin- 

 guishing them. They seem to prefer sea margin rather than 

 estuary, or only quite at mouth of latter. Lodging in the 

 sand, on the slightest tremor of footstep near, they give a 

 squirt, and disappear quickly and deeply. They make an 



* Witness, Mahew, " London Labour and London Poor," Vol. I. 



