46 Natural History of Molluscous Ariimals : — 



animal was esteemed a delicacy by the ancients, more especially 

 when it was in a pregnant condition ; and, from the high en- 

 comiums bestowed by Captain Cook on a soup he made from 

 it, the fish would seem to merit the attention of even modern 

 epicures. It is eaten at the present day by the Italians, and 

 by the modern Greeks during Lent. * 



The list of the tetTestrial species is equally short, for I re- 

 member only one, the Helix pomatiaf {^fig. 8.), which has 

 been employed as food; 

 but it is one of some 

 celebrity, and of which 

 a good deal has been 

 said. The Romans took 

 great pains in rearing 

 these snails. They kept 

 them in sties called 

 cochledf^ia, which were 

 generally constructed 

 under rocks or emi- 

 nences moistened by a passing stream. If, however, the sty 

 was not sufficiently humid, a water-pipe, bored full of holes, 

 like a watering-pot, was introduced, by which means it was 

 continually sprinkled and kept in a favourable state. | Here 

 the snails required little attendance or food, supplying them- 

 selves as they crawled about the sides or floor of their prison ; 

 but, when it was wished to fatten them, they were fed with 

 bran and sodden wine ; and, on this generous fare, they grew 

 occasionally to such a size that, according to Varro, the shell 

 would hold full ten quarts ! § You need no longer hold up 

 to imitation the temperance of the younger Pliny, whose sup- 

 per consisted of onli/ three snails, two eggs, a barley cake, a 

 lettuce, sweet wine, and snow ; but, alas ! participating in that 

 degeneracy which is said to characterise the human race of 

 the present day, our snails never attain the twentieth part of 



* Pennant's Brit. Zool., vol. iv. p. 119.; and the Travels of Pallas and 

 Clarke. 



f I presume the " vine snails," which Pallas repeatedly mentions as a 

 common food to the modern Greeks, are identical with this. He speaks of 

 their using nine or ten other sorts, but the species are not distinguished. 



t The cochlearia were invented by Fulvius Hirpinus, a little before the 

 civil war with Pompey the Great. (Plin. Hist. Nat., lib. ix. cap. 82.) 



§ " Ut cochleae quoque altUes ganeam implerent : cujus artis gloria in 

 eam magnitudinem perducta sit, ut octoginta quadrantes caperent singularum 

 cahces. Auctor est M. Varro." (Plin. Hist. Nat., lib. ix. cap. 82.) The 

 thing is quite incredible ; but, at the same time, we may remark that a dif- 

 ferent and larger species than the H. pomatia might be alluded to, for the 

 Romans brought land-shells, for their stews, from different countries, and 

 seem to have used several species. 



