MURICID^. — WHELK. 125 



while the inner, opening near the extremity with a lon- 

 gitudinal mouth, armed with two strong cartilaginous 

 lips, encloses the tongue, and a great part of the oesopha- 

 gus. The tongue is armed with short spines, and act- 

 ing in concert with the hard lips, which can he opened 

 or shut, or strongly pressed together, it forms a sort of 

 rasp or auger, by which very hard substances are rapidly 

 perforated; and then the tongue being protruded, the 

 hooked spines with which it is armed, are admirably 

 fitted for the collection of food." 



Wlielks are taken in great numbers in wicker baskets 

 baited with offal, and Pliny describes the taking of the 

 " purple fish" by a similar method, viz. in a kind of 

 osier kipe, called nassis, baited with cockles.* Billings- 

 gate Market is chiefly supplied from Harwich and Hull; 

 and some of the steamers from the north bring six or 

 seven tons at a time.f They are sold at Is. 6d. to 2s. a 

 measure ; are in season from August to September, 

 though they are really good to eat at any time. Children 

 are frequently seen buying a saucer of whelks in Lon- 

 don in the spring; and the shellfish shops near Bil- 

 lingsgate Market are well stocked with them. There 

 are, as Woodward remarks, two difTerent shellfish sold 

 in London, under the name of " whelks," or " buckles," 

 namely, the common Buccinum undatum, and the more 

 prized Fusus antiquus. Whelks are very troublesome to 

 the lobster-fishers, for they often devour the bait, and I 

 have seen, at St. Margaret's-at-Cliffe, on the Kentish 

 coast, the lobster-pots drawn up, one after the other, 

 baitless, and full of these greedy mollusks ; most try- 

 ing to the poor fishermen, especially when bait was 



* Pliny's Nat. Hist. vol. ii. bk. ix. p. 445. 

 t ' Curiosities of Food,' pp. 345-6. 



