MURIClDiE. WHELK. 
125 
while the inner, opening near the extremity with a lon- 
gitudinal mouth, armed with two strong cartilaginous 
lips, encloses the tongue, and a great part of the oesopha- 
gus. The tongue is armed with short spines, and act- 
ing in concert with the hard lips, which can be opened 
or shut, or strongly pressed together, it forms a sort of 
rasp or auger, by which very hard substances are rapidly 
perforated; and then the tongue being protruded, the 
hooked spines with which it is armed, are admirably 
fitted for the collection of food.^^ 
Whelks are taken in great numbers in wicker baskets 
baited with offal, and Pliny describes the taking of the 
‘^purple fish^^ by a similar method, viz. in a kind of 
osier kipe, called nassis, baited wdth cockles.* Billings- 
gate Market is chiefly supplied from Harwich and Hull; 
and some of the steamers from the north bring six or 
seven tons at a time.t They are sold at 1^. Qd. to 2^. a 
measure ; are in season from August to September, 
though they are really good to eat at any time. Children 
are frequently seen buying a saucer of whelks in Lbn- 
don in the spring; and the shellfish shops near Bil- 
lingsgate Market are well stocked with them. There 
are, as Woodward remarks, two different shellfish sold 
in London, under the name of “ whelks,^^ or buckies,^^ 
namely, the common Buccinum undatum, and the more 
prized Fusus antiquus. Whelks are very troublesome to 
the lobster-fishers, for they often devour the bait, and I 
have seen, at St. MargarePs-at-Cliffe, on the Kentish 
coast, the lobster-pots drawn up, one after the other, 
baitless, and full of these greedy mollusks; most try- 
ing to the poor fishermen, especially when bait was 
* Pliny’s Nat. Hist. voL ii. bk. ix. p. 445. 
t ‘ Curiosities of Food,’ pp. 345-6. 
