120 EDIBLE BEITISH MOLLUSKS. 



large, and worn quite smooth ; some specimens measuring 

 as much as eight inches in circumference. 



Limpets, a foot in diameter, are found on the Western 

 coast of South America, and are used by the natives as 

 basins.* 



In many places limpets are used for food, especially 

 on the Continent, where they are oftener eaten than the 

 periwinkle. At Naples they make them into soup, and 

 I am told it is an excellent dish. At Eastbourne we 

 have often seen the Irish reapers come down to the 

 shore and eat the limpets raw, which they had knocked 

 off the rocks with their knives. The poorer classes at 

 Eastbourne also eat them constantly ; the children col- 

 lecting them at low tide from the rocks. i\Ir. Patterson 

 while residing, in 1837, near the town of Larne, co. 

 Antrim, endeavoured to form some idea of the quantity 

 of the common limpet taken from the rocks on that 

 part of the coast, and used as food ; and he had reason 

 to believe that the weight of the boiled fish was above 

 eleven tons. At Plymouth they gather great numbers 

 of them, especially from the breakwater, as well as in 

 the Isle of Man, where they are known by the name of 

 " flitters;" and in Scotland the juice of these shellfislies 

 is mixed with oatmeal. In the Feroe Isles they call 

 them " flia;" and in ' Life in Normandy' (vol. i. p. 193) 

 we are told " that limpets are constantly eaten by the 

 poor; and that at Granville the children use a square- 

 pointed knife, with a thick back, for getting them off 

 the rocks ; some having, in addition, small wooden ham- 

 mers ; others only a stone in their right hands. The 

 edge of the knife was applied always on one side, and 

 never on the top of the shell; a little sharp tap was 



* Cuming, as quoted by Woodward, in ' Eecent and Fossil Shells.' 



