162 Economic Uses of Shells, and their Inhabitants. 



oyster; for it is only in comparatively late years that it has 

 received the protection of Mr. Frank Buckland, and become a 

 subject for Parliamentary committees to discuss, and Govern- 

 ment to legislate for. 



The shores of Denmark and her islands are marked to this 

 day by vast shell-mounds (kjokken-mod dings), indicating the 

 primitive taste for Ostrea edulis. No doubt vast strata of 

 oyster- shells must exist beneath London, when we consider 

 that from 20,000 to 30,000 bushels of " natives/' and 100,000 

 bushels of " sea-oysters/' were (ten years ago) annually sup- 

 plied to the London market. If any falling off has occurred 

 of late in the fcrmer kind, the latter have, no doubt, been 

 brought in larger quantities to meet the demand. The Oyster 

 Companies promise to make oysters as cheap as ever in another 

 six or seven years. " Sea-oysters w (i. e., oysters naturally 

 grown) attain their majority in four years, but ' ' natives " (i. e., 

 oysters artificially cultivated) do not reach their full growth in 

 less than five or seven years. It was the bringing of immature 

 oysters to market which has, to a great extent, produced the 

 present scarcity of this article of food. Many other species of 

 oysters are eaten in India, China, Australia, etc. 



Pecten maximus — commonly known as ' * scallops " in the 

 London market, " queens " at Brighton, and " frills " on the 

 coasts of Dorset and Devonshire — are now almost as much 

 eaten as oysters, but they require to be cooked first. 



An allied species has received the name of " St. James's 

 shell " (Pecten Jacoboeus) ; it was worn by pilgrims to the Holy 

 Land. The fossil Pectens found in the sub-apennine formation 

 of Italy were supposed by early writers to have been dropped 

 by these devout persons on the road. Parnell says of the 

 hermit : — 



" He quits his cell ; the pilgrim staff he bore, 

 And fixed the scallop in his hat before." 



The aged Pectens certainly are sedentary in their habit, as is 

 testified by the mass of Bryozoa, Serpulm, Alcyonium, and 

 Balani attached to their upper flat valve. They do not, 

 however, fix themselves like the oysters' by the deep valve, 

 but some species are moored by a byssus to stones, or the 

 stems of the Laminaria. 



The young Pectens swim freely by rapidly closing and 

 opening their valves. The writer, when dredging with Mr. 

 Mac Andrew off Corufia, has seen Pecten opercular is, two inches 

 in diameter, swim rapidly out of the dredge as it was hauled 

 up alongside the boat. 



Mytilus edulis, the common edible sea-mussel, although far 

 less highly esteemed than the scallop 'or oyster, is nevertheless 

 much in request as an article of food. 



