40 
ANIMAL LIFE ON THE 
When opening the mouth, a belt-like instrument rises 
and sweeps upwards from the lower extremity with a 
curving stroke, then disappears within the gullet, and 
time after time the movement is repeated. This instrument 
is provided on the top side with a set of small sharp silicate 
membranes, like the teeth of a saw, with which it rasps or 
grinds into powder the herbage of the shore on which it 
subsists. Hence the continual gnawing of the mouth. 
The whelk is a cleanly creature, and being graminivorous, 
is a dainty morsel to the palate, and will do no harm to 
the most fastidious stomach. Age, however, as with 
the creatures of the land, blunts the teeth and reduces 
the rasping power, the consequence of which is that the 
body becomes hardened and to some extent loses its flavour. 
There is no authentic means of ascertaining to what 
extent our markets are supplied with this favourite 
shellfish, but it is well known that thousands of bushels 
annually find their way into our large centres of population. 
From Kilcreggan shore to the Mull of Kintyre on the 
one side, and from Kempoch Point to the Mull of 
Galloway on the other, the traveller is familiar with the 
bent form of the whelk-gatherer, on every rocky creek or 
bay where the creatures are to be found, prosecuting his 
or her calling. Issuing from the adjacent towns or 
villages, or squatting upon the shore in their little huts, 
or dwelling in the caves of the rocks, or improvising a 
place of shelter in a convenient nook, these people toil 
for more than half the year and live in seeming contented- 
ness. They are invariably of Irish extraction. Those 
in possession of a little tent or hut are usually an old pair 
up in years, or incapacitated, through some other cause, 
from following the more active and strength-imposing 
pursuits of life. Few, indeed, amongst them are to be 
