133 
EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 
that of the late violet ; this last being the most vivid of 
all the conchy liated^^ tints.* 
The best purple in Asia was that of Tyre, and the pe- 
culiar symbol of that city was the whelk, ov purpura, 
and it appears on the Tyrian medals, f Strabo remarks 
that this city was rendered unpleasant as a place of re- 
sidence, owing to the great number of its dyeing- works. 
In the days of Ezekiel, purple was imported by the Ty- 
rians from the Peloponnesus, but they soon learned to 
extract the dye for themselves. A modern traveller, Mr. 
Wilde, observed at Tyre numerous round holes cut in 
the solid sandstone rock, in which shells seem to have 
been crushed. They were perfectly smooth on the inside, 
and many of them shaped like a modern iron pot, broad 
and flat at the bottom, and narrowing towards the top. 
Many of these were filled with a breccia of shells ; and 
he supposes that all the shells were of one kind, probably 
Mur ex trunculus.X 
In Africa, the island of Meninx (now called Gerbee, 
in the Gulf of Gabes) was famed for its purple, as well 
as parts of Gaetulia, that border on the ocean ; and in 
Europe, the best came from Laconia. 
Cornelius Nepos speaks of the Tarentine red ; and 
Hardouin remarks that in his time were still to be seen 
the remains of the ancient dyeing-houses at Tarentum, 
and that vast heaps of the shells of the murex had been 
discovered. § 
Aufrere, in 1789, describes a hill called Monte Tes- 
* Pliny, vol. iv. bk. xxi. 22 (8). f Heraldry of Fish. 
t W. Smith, Diet, of the Bible, vol. iii. p. 1581, article “Tyre.” A 
friend of mine has also seen these holes, round, square, and oblong, 2 
to 3 ft. deep, but doubts their containing a breccia of shells pounded 
up in ancient times. 
§ Pliny, Nat. Hist., see note, vol. ii. bk. ix. ch. 63 (39). 
