The " Kjokken-Moddinger" of Elginshire. 89 



annually to the seaside, even though it should be but for a 

 few hours, under the impression, unquestionably, that some 

 benefit is thereby derived. The visitors generally return to 

 their homes with some shelly trophy, to adorn their mantle- 

 pieces or the sills of the window. Can this custom be the 

 vestiges of the summer migration of an early ancestry ? It 

 would be well if this hint were taken up, and information 

 gathered as to the names, seasons, purposes, traditions, &c, 

 of these maritime pilgrimages. 



There is enough yet left at Brigzes to enable one to form 

 a pretty correct idea of the size of the mound there on the 

 day on which it was ostracised — forsaken, by the throwing 

 of the last shell. This mound, or rather these two mounds 

 (for there is an intervening portion of the ground that has 

 no shells), must have been of considerable extent. A rough 

 measurement gives eighty by thirty yards for the larger, 

 and twenty-six by thirty for the smaller portion. The 

 most abundant shell is the periwinkle — the edible " buckie," 

 as it is provincially called. Next in order as to frequency, 

 is the oyster, and magnificent " natives" they must have 

 been ! No doubt, when this favourite shell-fish was served 

 up at the feasts held on its margin, the bed of the Loch of 

 Spynie, then an arm of the sea, was the productive dredging- 

 ground. On that extensive flat, wherever canal or ditch 

 has been dug, oysters are met with, seemingly on the spots 

 where they lived. The oyster, as well as those who had it 

 as a large item in their bill of fare, has passed away from 

 our coasts. Save in some of the sheltered nooks of our 

 Firth, as at Cromarty, Altirlie, and Avoch, we know not 

 where a small dish of them could be procured. A similar 

 account is given of the disappearance of the oyster from 

 the shores of Denmark, where, as on our own coasts, it was 

 formerly so abundant. As third in order, in this mound, 

 is the muscle, and then the cockle. Each of these species, 

 however, bears but a small proportion to either of the for- 

 mer two. These four — the oyster, cockle, muscle, and peri- 

 winkle, have long retained the preference they seem to have 

 so early obtained as food, for they are almost the only species 

 of their class that are now brought for sale to the markets 



VOL. III. m 



