178 
EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 
A friend of mine, who examined some of the holes, 
observes that they are evidently formed by the animal, 
and are lined with a smooth yellow substance which it 
deposits on the stone; that in limestone rocks the de- 
posit is probably obtained from the stone itself by means 
of a solvent, but that in granite it may be derived from 
the lime held in solution in the sea water. 
Echinus esculentus, the real Our sin comestible, is found 
in the Mediterranean, and also on the coast of Brittany ; 
and I have seen specimens from the roadstead of Brest. 
Mr. R. Jones (as quoted by the Rev. J. Wood in his 
^Natural History,^ p. 722) gives a most amusing descrip- 
tion of sea-egg fishing in the Bay of Naples, saying, 
had not swum very far from the beach before I found 
myself surrounded by some fifty or sixty human heads, 
the bodies belonging to which were invisible, and, inter- 
spersed among these, perhaps an equal number of pairs 
of feet sticking out of the water. As I approached the 
spot, the entire scene became sufficiently ludicrous and 
bewildering. Down went a head, up came a pair of 
heels; down went a pair of heels, up came a head; 
and as something like a hundred people were all dili- 
gently practising the same manoeuvre, the strange vicis- 
situde from heels to head, and head to heels, going on 
simultaneously, was rather a puzzling spectacle. On 
inquiry, it proved that these divers were engaged in 
fishing for sea-urchins, which are especially valuable 
just before they deposit their eggs, — the roe, as the 
aggregate egg-masses are termed, being large, and in as 
much repute as the ^ soft roe ^ of the herring.^^ 
The Fuegian women dive to collect sea-eggs, both in 
winter and summer ; and large sea-eggs are found in 
the Bay of Concepcion, which are highly esteemed by the 
Chilians, and eaten raw. 
