120 
EDIBLE BEITISH MOLLUSKS. 
large, and worn quite smooth ; some specimens measuring 
as much as eight inches in circumference. 
Limpets, a foot in diameter, are found on the Western 
coast of South America, and are used by the natives as 
basins.* 
In many places limpets are used for food, especially 
on the Continent, where they are oftener eaten than the 
periwinkle. At Naples they make them into soup, and 
I am told it is an excellent dish. At Eastbourne we 
have often seen the Irish reapers come down to the 
shore and eat the limpets raw', wEich they had knocked 
off the rocks with their knives. The poorer classes at 
Eastbourne also eat them constantly ; the children col- 
lecting them at low tide from the rocks. Mr. Patterson 
while residing, in L837, near the town of Larne, co. 
Antrim, endeavoured to form some idea of the quantity 
of the common limpet taken from the rocks on that 
part of the coast, and used as food ; and he had reason 
to believe that the weight of the boiled fish was above 
eleven tons. At Plymouth they gather great numbers 
of them, especially from the breakwater, as w^ell as in 
the Isle of Alan, where they are known by the name of 
flitters and in Scotland the juice of these shellfishes 
is mixed with oatmeal. In the Eeroe Isles they call 
them flia and in ‘ Life in Normandy ^ (vol. i. p. 192) 
we are told that limpets are constantly eaten by the 
poor ; and that at Granville the children use a square- 
pointed knife, with a thick back, for getting them off 
the rocks; some having, in addition, small wooden ham- 
mers ; others only a stone in their right hands. The 
edge of the knife was applied always on one side, and 
never on the top of the shell; a little sharp tap w'as 
* Cuming, as quoted by Woodward, in ‘ Eecent and Fossil Shells.’ 
