THE SCALLOP. 541 



delicacy." The "great quantities" in those days meant a few- 

 hundred bushels, eaten by the dwellers on Long Island bays, for 

 at that time there was no market for them. The rich, sweet taste 

 of the scallop is disagreeable to a few persons and has been 

 known to produce nausea at times, but to many its tenderness 

 and pronounced flavor are more agreeable than those of any other 

 bivalve. 



An old legend claims that the scallop shell rightfully be- 

 longed, as a badge, not to the Crusaders and pilgrims to the Holy 

 Land, but only to such as had made the pilgrimage to the cele- 

 brated shrine of St. James at Campostella, in Spain, as may be 

 learned from the following account of a miracle: 



" The ship in which the body of St. James was conveyed to its 

 last resting place happening to draw near the coast during the 

 performance of certain nuptial festivities, the bridegroom's horse, 

 becoming ungovernable, plunged into the sea and together with 

 its rider sank ; but, at the moment the ship was passing by, rose 

 again, close alongside of it. There were several miracles in this 

 case. The first was, that the sea bore upon its waves the horse 

 and horseman as if it had been firm land, after not having 

 drowned them when they were so long under water. The second 

 was, that the wind, which was driving the ship at full speed into 

 port, suddenly fell and left it motionless ; while the third and 

 most remarkable was that both the garments of the knight and 

 the trappings of his horse came out of the sea covered with 

 scallop shells, which were afterward enjoined to be worn in com- 

 memoration of the event." If such a miracle should happen at 

 New Suffolk to-day the judgment of the inhabitants would be 

 like that in the historical eel case the scallops would be sent to 

 the shops, and the horse and its rider would be " set again." 



Like all marine shells, our scallop is not as clean on the outside 

 when it comes from the water as it appears after preparation for 

 ornamental use. Many forms of animal and vegetable life have 

 attached to it and made their homes upon it, especially on the 

 upper or flatter valve. Here we find the red boring sponge 

 which eats pinholes in all shells, inhabited or not, cutting through 

 to the lining of nacre and occasionally through that to the in- 

 terior. This injury is promptly repaired from the inside, but 

 small elevations remain to show where the breach was healed. 

 Tube worms build their twisted houses in such masses as to im- 

 pede the movements of the scallop, and they have been known to 

 bind several individuals together in a mass by their calcareous 

 tubes while the mollusks were lying quiescent, a fact which seems 

 to show that at some seasons the scallop must remain in one place 

 for some time, long enough for the tube worms (Serpula contor- 

 twplicata) to grow and build their dwellings as increase of size 



