PATELLID^.— LIMPET. 121 



given, either with the hammer or stone, and the fish fell 

 at once." This reminds us of Hermippus, who says, — 



" And beating down the limpets from the rocks, 

 They make a noise like castanets."* 



The Patellidce were also among the shellfish eaten by 

 the ancients ; Diphilus says they have a pleasant flavour, 

 are easily digested, and when boiled are particularly 

 nice.t It is a curious fact, and one which is puzzling to 

 archaeologists, that limpet shells should be found in such 

 abundance in cromlechs, both in the Channel Islands 

 and in Brittany, surrounding the remains of the dead, 

 often covering the bones, skulls, etc., to the depth of two 

 and three feet in thickness. Mr. F. C. Lukis, in the 

 'Journal of the Archaeological Association' (vol. i. p. 28), 

 mentions finding limpet shells, mixed with earth, round 

 the bones, in the Cromlech du Tus, or de Hus, Guern- 

 sey. Again, in a "cromlech" in Jersey, discovered in 

 April, 1848, Mr. Lukis adds that there is a difficulty 

 in solving the great question — why such a mass of lim- 

 pet shells should invariably accompany these abodes of 

 the dead ? They are found not only in the earliest de- 

 posits, but also amongst the more recent. J 



The term " Cromlech," as applied to the " Cromlech 

 du Tus," is a local name, used in the Channel Islands 

 for a subterranean chamber, lined with upright slabs, 

 covered by a roof of one or more slabs of stone, with a 

 long passage leading to it, formed in like manner of up- 

 right slabs covered by large lintels, — over which has 

 been raised a tumulus of earth ; while our term Crom- 

 lech is applied to those covered by one capstone only, 



* Athenaeus, Deipn., book xiv. 39. 



f Athenseiis, toI. i. book iii. p. 152. 



J Journal of the Archaeological Association, vol. iv. p. 336. 



