376 



THE WHELK. 



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

 almost wholly by the poorer classes, who consider them in 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 simple : 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 instinct- 

 ively discover the feast, crowd into the basket by thousands, and are taken by merely 

 raising the laden basket to the surface, and emptying it into a tub. Sometimes the 

 Whelk is captured by the dredge, but the baited basket is the quickest and surest 

 method. Besides its use as an article of human consumption, it is sometimes em- 

 ployed by the fishermen as bait for their hooks. 



WHELK. Bucclaum uadatum. 



CONCHOLEPAS. 



Peruvians. 



The reader will doubtlessly have observed on the seashore considerable masses of 

 little yellowish capsules, mostly empty, and so light as to be drifted on the surface of 

 the sea like so many masses of corks. These are the empty egg-cases of the 

 Whelk, and in the illustration a small group of them is represented adhering to the 

 oyster-shell on the right-hand of the cut. At the proper season of the year, when the 

 egg-clusters are flung on the shores by the gales, the little Whelks can be discovered 

 within the capsules, several shells being found in each case. When hatched, the young 

 escape into the sea through a round hole in the capsule. 



The empty shells of this mollusc are often seized by the well-known hermit or 

 soldier-crab, who is obliged to content himself while in his youth with the shell of the 

 tops, advances with increasing size to the larger habitation of the purpura, and when he 



