1 64 NATURAL HISTORY of ilTO£ WA T. 



forts, as far as I have been able to learn, go by the name of the 

 Short-fhell, and are ufed, as moft of the former, only for baits 

 on the fifhing-hooks. The Scots eat them like Oyfters. They 

 are found commonly covered on clay-ground. The infide of 

 thefe {hells affords that fine chalky fubftance, which is reckoned 

 a very good abforbent, and is alfo produced by the thick common 

 Oyfter- {hells; but they mufl be firft as it were calcined by the 

 air. Their manner of breeding can only be conjectured by the 

 fmall {hells, not bigger than the fcale of a Fifti, which ftick fre- 

 quently to them ; which feems to proceed from that part of the 

 fhell which the Oyfter always keeps clofe, like a hinge. 

 Enquiry. If We enquire how all the {hells of thefe various kinds of 



Oyfters grow, and widen with the enclofed Fifh, tho' it is 

 not, like the Lobfters thin cruftaceous covering, as it were con- 

 creted from the body of the Fifri, but is evidently nourifhed 

 from without, and enlarged from the fand and {lime of the fea ; 

 if we make this enquiry, I fay, we {hall hardly find any fatif- 

 fattory account -of it hitherto given. Nothing yet propofed will 

 fuperfede our enquiring after the fome thing unknown, or the 

 occult quality of our old Ariflotelians, as they expreffed them- 

 felves ; for they, at leaft in the eyes of the world, would not 

 appear to be entirely ignorant, but had fomething to fay upon 

 every fubjefl;. 



The wifdom of God is mofl wonderfully difplayed even in 

 his minuteft works * and our knowledge is but very imperfect, 

 not only with regard to thefe, but of the greater works of 

 creation, and their particular properties ; tho' this is an age which 

 would pretend to open all difficulties, like fo many locks, with 

 the mafter-key of demonflration *. 



SECT. III. 



vinflinger. Muflinger, or Cockles, Pe&unculi, which we otherwife call, by 



way of eminence, the Shell-fifh, are in plenty here as in other 

 places, namely, the common fort, and thofe which are alfo called 

 the Crow-fhell, from the crow, who is very fond of them, and 

 tries his skill by opening them in this manner : the bird picks 

 the fhell up in his bill, and flies up very high, and then drops it 

 on the rocks, which breaks the {hell to pieces. Thefe are pickled, 

 like Oyfters, for exportation. 



* The curious Frid. Chrift. Leflfer, in his Teftaceo-Theologie, P. I. L. i. c. iv. 

 §. 1 1 6. advances fomething on this head ; but at the fame time owns that we cannot 

 inveftigate the true caufe of this wonderful production, nor of many other particulars 

 in the works of nature. 



The 



