90 APRIL. 



species, 1 which rather affects the muddy flats of estu- 

 aries than sand beaches, though not uncommon here. 

 This latter, though much inferior in sapidity to the great 

 spinous sort, forms a far more important item in the 

 category of human food, from its very general distribu- 

 tion, its extreme abundance, and the ease with which 

 it is collected. Wherever the receding tide leaves an 

 area of exposed mud, the common cockle is sure to be 

 found ; and hundreds of men, women, and children, 

 may be seen plodding and groping over the stinking 

 surface, with naked feet and bent backs, picking up the 

 shell-fish by thousands, to be boiled and eaten for home 

 consumption, or to be cried through the lanes and alleys 

 of the neighbouring towns by stentorian boys, who voci- 

 ferate all day long, " Here 's your fine cockles, here ! 

 Here they are ! Here they are ! Twopence a quart !" 

 It is on the north-western coasts of Scotland, how- 

 ever, that the greatest abundance of these mollusca 

 occurs, and there they form not a luxury, but even a 

 necessary of life to the poor semi-barbarous population. 

 The inhabitants of those rocky regions enjoy an unen- 

 viable notoriety for being habitually dependent on this 

 mean diet. " Where the river meets the sea at Tongue," 

 says Macculloch, " there is a considerable ebb, and the 

 long sand-banks are productive of cockles in an abund- 



1 Cardium edule. 



