596 



THE VENUS'S COMB AND THE WHELK. 



has also received the equally appropriate and more poetical name 

 of Venus's Comb. 



This shell is found in the Indian Ocean, and varies greatly in dimen- 

 sions, four or five inches being about the average length. It is evident 

 that, as nothing is ever made in vain or to be wasted, the wonderful 

 array of external spines must play some important part in nature, if 

 not in the economy of the particular species. But what that part may 

 be, and what may be the object of these beautiful structures, is a prob- 

 lem which seems almost insoluble — at all events, with our present means 

 of discovery. 



The color of the shell is very pale brown, each ridge being slightly 

 tuberculated and edged with white. The spines are uniform drab or 

 very pale brown, with an almost horny translucence. 



We now arrive at another and rather larger family, of which the 

 common Whelk is a familiar example. 



This is one of the most carnivorous of our molluscs, and among the 

 creatures of its own class is as destructive as the lion among the herds 



of antelopes. Its long tongue, 

 armed with row upon row of 

 curved and sharp-edged teeth, 

 harder than the notches of a file 

 and keen as the edge of a lancet, 

 is a most irresistible instrument 

 when rightly applied, drilling a 

 circular hole through the thickest 

 shells as easily as a carpenter's 

 centre-bit works its way through 

 a deal board. 

 The front of the tongue often has its teeth sadly broken, or even 

 wanting altogether, but their place is soon supplied by others, which 

 make their way gradually forward, and are brought successively into 

 use as wanted. As a general rule, there are about a hundred rows of 

 teeth in the Whelk's tongue; each row contains three teeth, and each 

 tooth is deeply cleft into several notches, which practically gives the 

 creature so many additional teeth. 



Vast quantities of Whelks are taken annually for the markets, and 

 are consumed almost wholly by the poorer classes, who consider them 

 m the light of a delicacy. They are, however, decidedly tough and 

 stringy in texture, and, like the periwinkle, which is also largely eaten, 

 are not particularly digestible. The mode of taking these molluscs is 

 very sunple. Large wicker baskets are baited with the refuse portions 

 of fish and lowered to the bottom of the sea by ropes. The ever-hungry 

 Whelks instinctively discover the feast, crowd into the basket by thou- 

 sands, and are taken by merely raising the laden basket to the surface 



The Whelk (Buccinum undalum). 



