HELIX OR PERIWINKLE. 107 



seaweed, with Avhich some parts of the coast 

 abound, the rocks looking quite a bright green 

 with it ; it is often a means of passing a merry 

 day amongst the farmers' sons and daughters and 

 villagers, who start in parties when the tide is 

 going out, each with a basket, and all work with 

 a will to try and fill his or her basket first ; they 

 then adjourn to their residence, and a great fuss 

 takes place in cooking the produce of their day's 

 Avork, a tea-party to eat these delicacies being the 

 usual finish. Many hundred tons arc sold each 

 year in the market at Billingsgate to itinerant 

 hawkers ; they again retailing them in halfpenny- 

 worths to the poor inhabitants of the back lanes 

 and alleys. Vessels of twenty to fifty tons come 

 every day to Billingsgate laden with nothing but 

 these shell-fish. Vast quantities come from Nor- 

 folk and Scotland, and Ireland contributes its 

 share ; they are by no means to be despised as an 

 article of food after being carefully extracted with 

 a pin from their shells. 



