CRUSTACEA.

The flesh of all crustaceous animals, although in great request, is rather difficult of digestion; and much of it cannot be eaten with impunity. There are classes of persons who are as averse to use shell-fish for food, as a Mahommedan or Mussulman are to partake of pork. It is therefore curious to reflect how, and where, the thousands of tons of crustacea and shell-fish taken to Billingsgate and Hungerford markets are disposed of. Lobsters, cray-fish, prawns, shrimps, oysters, mussels, periwinkles, and whelks, are there every morning in great abundance, and the high retail prices they fetch, show that this description of food must be well relished by the Londoners.

The land crabs of the West Indies are an esteemed delicacy, and the ravenous pigs feed on them with equal avidity to the great danger of their health.

I need not here advert to the migratory habits of the crabs, to their uniting at certain periods in vast numbers, and moving in the most direct course to the sea, marching in squadrons and lines, and halting twice a-day for feeding and repose. These movements may often be seen in Jamaica, and other West Indian islands, where millions on millions string themselves along the coast on progresses from the hills to the sea, and from the sea to the hills.

The reader of Bishop Heber’sIndian Journalwill remember his account of the land crabs at Poonah. ‘All the grass land generally through the Deckan swarms with a small land crab, which burrows in the ground, and runs with considerable swiftness, even when encumbered with a bundle of food almost as big as itself. This food is grass or the green stalks of rice; and it is amusing to see them sitting as it were upright, to cut their hay with their sharp pincers, then waddling off with the sheaf to their holes as quietly as their side-long pace will carry them.’

This is not the same land crab of which we are speaking, but it is a graphic picture of theGecarcina ruricola, in its habit of feeding.

They cut up roots and leaves, and feed on the fallen fruit of trees; but we have little more than conjecture for the cause of their occasional deleterious qualities. Impressed with the notion that the crabs owe their hurtful qualities to the fruit of the manchineel tree, Sloane imagined that he had explained the fatal accidents which have occurred to some persons after eating them, from neglect, or inattentiveness to precaution in cleaning their interior and removing the half digested particles of the fruit. It has been ascertained that theyfeed on such dangerous vegetables of the morass as theAnona palustris, a fruit exceedingly narcotic. It is well enough known that the morass crab is always to be suspected. The land crabs, however, collect leaves less for food than to envelop themselves in, when they moult. After concealment for a time within their burrows, they come forth in those thin teguments forming a red tense pellicle, similar to wet parchment, and are more delicate in that condition, and more prized for the table. The white crabs are the most bulky of the tribe, and are the least esteemed, and the most mistrusted.

Land-crabs, says a Jamaica paper, of March last, are to be seen on the highways between this, Montego Bay, and Gum Island, just like bands of soldiers, marching to a battle-point of concentration. This bids fair to supply the epicure, at an easy rate, with this class of crustacea. It is one of the most remarkable, for it is composed of animals breathing by means of branchiæ or gills, and yet essentially terrestrial; so much so, indeed, that they would perish from asphyxia if submerged for any length of time.

I select Browne’s account of the habits of the black or mountain crab, because he resided many years in Jamaica, and seems to have lost no opportunity of making personal observations; and his remarks tally with my own experience, from three years’ residence in Jamaica.

‘These creatures are very numerous in some parts of Jamaica, as well as in the neighbouring islands, and on the coast of the main continent; they are generally of a dark purple colour, but this often varies, and you frequently find them spotted, or entirely of another hue.They live chiefly on dry land, and at a considerable distance from the sea, which, however, they visit once a year to wash off their spawn, and afterwards return to the woods and higher lands, where they continue for the remaining part of the season; nor do the young ones ever fail to follow them, as soon as they are able to crawl. The old crabs generally regain their habitations in the mountains, which are seldom within less than a mile, and not often above three from the shore, by the latter end of June, and then provide themselves with convenient burrows, in which they pass the greatest part of the day, going out only at night to feed. In December and January they begin to be in spawn, and are then very fat and delicate, but continue to grow richer until the month of May, which is the season for them to wash off their eggs. They begin to move down in February, and are very much abroad in March and April, which seems to be the time for the impregnation of their eggs, being then frequently found fixed together; but the males, about this time, begin to lose their flavour and richness of their juices. The eggs are discharged from the body through two small round holes situated at the sides, and about the middle of the under shell; these are only large enough to admit one at a time, and as they pass they are entangled in the branched capillaments, with which the under side of the apron is copiously supplied, to which they stick by the means of their proper gluten, until the creatures reach the surf, where they wash them all off, and then they begin to return back again to the mountains. It is remarkable that the bag or stomach of this creature changes its juices with the state of the body; and while poor is full of a black, bitter, disagreeable fluid, which diminishes as it fattens, and at length acquiresa delicate, rich flavour. About the month of July or August, the crabs fatten again and prepare for moulting, filling up their burrows with dry grass, leaves, and abundance of other materials: when the proper period comes, each retires to his hole, shuts up the passage, and remains quite inactive until he gets rid of his old shell, and is fully provided with a new one. How long they continue in this state is uncertain, but the shell is observed to burst, both at the back and sides, to give a passage to the body, and it extracts its limbs from all the other parts gradually afterwards. At this time, the fish is in the richest state, and covered only with a tender membraneous skin, variegated with a multitude of reddish veins; but this hardens gradually after, and becomes soon a perfect shell like the former; it is, however, remarkable, that during this change, there are some stony concretions always formed in the bag, which waste and dissolve gradually, as the creature forms and perfects its new crust. A wonderful mechanism! This crab runs very fast, and always endeavours to get into some hole or crevice on the approach of danger; nor does it wholly depend on its art and swiftness, for while it retreats it keeps both claws expanded, ready to catch the offender if he should come within its reach; and if it succeeds on these occasions, it commonly throws off the claw, which continues to squeeze with incredible force for near a minute after; while he, regardless of the loss, endeavours to make his escape, and to gain a more secure or a more lonely covert, contented to renew his limb with his coat at the ensuing change; nor would it grudge to lose many of the others to preserve the trunk entire, though each comes off with more labour and reluctance, as their numbers lessen.’

There are several varieties of land crabs, such as the large white, the mulatto, the black, and the red. The black and red crabs are most excellent eating: when in season, the females are full of a rich glutinous substance, called the eggs, which is perfectly delicious. Epicurean planters, in some of the West Indian Islands, have crab pens, (after the manner of fowl coops,) for fattening these luxuries. The best manner of dressing them is to pick out all the flesh from the shell, making it into a stew, with plenty of cayenne pepper, dishing it up in the shell; in this way they are little inferior to turtle. They are usually simply boiled, or roasted in the embers, by which they are deprived of their luscious flavour, and become not only insipid in taste but disgusting to look at.

In Dominica, they form an ingredient in the well-known ‘pepper-pot.’ The black crabs are also picked from their shell, stewed with Indian kale and pods of chilhies, and eaten with a pudding made of maize flour or rice; this dish is greatly esteemed by most of the inhabitants.

In the islands and cays of the Bahamas group, land crabs literally swarm, and afford food for the inhabitants the greatest part of the year: even the hogs are fed upon them. It is the grey or white kind of crab, common to Cuba and the Bahamas. In the autumn they are very fat, and equal in flavour to the black species of Jamaica. They are found in myriads in all parts, and thought a great delicacy; but a stranger tires of them in a few weeks.

The black crab is very fat and delicious; but the white and the mulatto crabs are sometimes dangerous, from feeding upon poisonous leaves and berries. Toprevent any evil consequences, the flesh is washed with lime-juice and water.

Land crabs were probably plentiful in Italy, in the time of Virgil, for in hisFourth Georgiche forbids the roasting of red crabs near an apiary, the smell of them being disagreeable to the bees.

There is a species of fresh-water crab, the mason (Cancer cementarius), met with in Chile, the flesh of which is very white, and represented to be preferable to that of any other species of fluvial or marine crab. It is about eight inches long, of a brown colour, striped with red. They are found in abundance in almost all the rivers and brooks, on whose shores they build themselves, with clay, a small cylindrical tenement which rises six inches above the surface of the ground, but admits the water, by means of a subterranean canal extending to the bed of the river. They are easily caught, by letting down into the water a basket, or osier-pot, with a piece of meat in it.

That well-known crustacean, or ‘shell-fish’ as it is popularly termed,—the lobster (Astacus gammarus), although it is no fish at all, is found in great plenty about most of the European and American shores, and greatly esteemed as a very rich and nourishing aliment. In this country lobsters are considered in season from November till the end of April. They are not allowed to be caught on the coasts of Scotland between the 1st of June and the 1st of September, under a penalty of £5. Lobsters must not be offered for sale in this country under eight inches in length. Like the crab, the lobster casts its shell annually. It begins to breed in the spring, and continues breeding during the greater part of the summer. Lobsters areoccasionally caught on the shores and in the neighbourhood of rocks, which they frequent, by the hand; but they are usually trapped in baskets, or pots made of osier-twigs, which are baited with garbage, and thrown into the sea, the situation being marked by a buoy of cork.

Lobsters are very abundant about Scilly and the Land’s End, and near Montrose in Scotland. In the Orkney and Shetland Islands, the value of the lobsters caught in 1833 was £1,800, which gave employment to 216 boats, and about 500 men. They are sent principally to Leith. Those caught near Heligoland are esteemed the most delicate. The largest fishery for these crustaceans is on the coasts of Norway, from whence we import more than a million a year. Upwards of half-a-million are caught on the shores of Scotland and Ireland. Lobsters are found almost everywhere on the North American coasts, and in the Bay of Chaleur, in such extraordinary numbers, that they are used by thousands to manure the land.

Mr. Perley, in hisReport on the Sea and River Fisheries of New Brunswick, states, ‘That at Shippagan and Caraquette, carts are sometimes driven down to the beaches at low water, and readily filled with lobsters left in the shallow pools by the recession of the tide. Every potato field near the places mentioned is strewn with lobster shells, each potato hill being furnished with two or three lobsters.

‘Within a few years,’ he adds, ‘one establishment has been set up on Portage Island, at the mouth of the River Miramachi, and another at the mouth of the Kouchibouguac River, for putting up lobsters, in tin cases, hermetically sealed for exportation. In 1845, noless than 13,000 cases of lobsters and salmon were thus put up at Portage Island. In 1847, nearly 10,000 cases of lobsters, each case containing the choicest parts of two or three lobsters, and one-and-a-half tons of fresh salmon in 2-lb. and 4-lb. cases, were put up at Kouchibouguac. The preservation of lobsters in this manner need only be restricted by the demand, for the supply is unlimited. The price paid for lobsters, at the establishment on Portage Island, is 2s.per 100. They are all taken in small hoop nets, chiefly by the Acadian French of the Neguac villages, who, at the price stated, could with reasonable diligence, make £1 each in the 24 hours; but as they are somewhat idle and easily contented, they rarely exert themselves to earn more than 10s.per day, which they can generally obtain by eight or ten hours’ attention to their hoop nets.

‘In 1848, about 4,000 lbs. of lobsters were put up at Portage Island in 1-lb. or 2-lb. tin cases. The quantity preserved was much less than usual, owing to the prevalence of cholera in the United States, and the consequent want of a market there. One Frenchman had, unassisted, caught 1,200 lobsters in part of one day. About 25 men are employed at this preserving establishment during the season.

‘Mr. Woolner has a small but very complete establishment for preserving lobsters, at Petit Rocher, in the Bay of Chaleur. In the season of 1849, he only put up a small quantity, 2,000 lbs., in tins. He purchases from the settlers the white part of the lobsters, boiled and free from shell, at 2d.per lb., which is salted in plain pickle, and packed in barrels, for sale at Quebec. He shipped last year 11,000 lbs. of salted lobsters.’

Next to timber, lobsters form one of the greatest articles of Norwegian export. On the rocky shores of Christiansand, they are found in greater numbers than in any other part of the world; and from Bergen, which lies farther to the north, as many as 260,000 pairs have been exported in one year. Mr. J. E. Saunders, of Billingsgate, into whose hands almost the entire trade of these crustaceans has fallen, often sells 15,000 lobsters before breakfast of a morning; and in the height of the season, the sale not unfrequently amounts to 30,000. They are sent in great numbers from Scotland to the markets of London, Liverpool, and Birmingham—60 or 70 large boxes of them being transmitted at a time by train. Our fishermen, it is true, take them occasionally in pots round the coast, but no systematic fishery is carried on for them.

A company was recently formed at Berwick to import them alive, in welled smacks, from the coast of Norway. They are also brought into Southampton from Brittany and Ireland in welled smacks, which carry from 7,000 to 8,000 each.

‘Lobster-carrying is subject to the following contingencies:—Thunder kills them when in the well; also proximity to the discharge of heavy ordnance. Mr. Scovell lost several thousand from the latter cause, one of his smacks having anchored at night too near the saluting-battery at Plymouth. Calms also destroy the lobsters in the well, but onward or pitching motion in a seaway does not affect them. They keep alive one month in the well without food.’[35]

An artificial pond, or saltern, has been formed at Hamble, in the Southampton water, for keeping lobsters alive in. It is about 50 yards square, by 10 to 12 feet deep, with shelving sides of brick or stone and cement, and a concrete bottom, having a lock or weir at the entrance, for the admission and exit of salt water at the bottom (the Hamble being a fresh-water stream). This pond cost about £13,000. The lobsters are fed on fish, and fatten. Sometimes there are as many as 70,000 lobsters in this pond. All weak lobsters are kept in baskets and sold first. Even here, however, their cannibal-like propensities are not extinguished; for the powerful make war upon, and incorporate into their own natures, the weak. There are feeders and keepers employed at the saltern, who, with long poles, hooked at the end, drag out the fish as they are wanted for the market from their marine menagerie. The instant the pole touches a fish, the latter grasps it savagely with its claws, and does not loose its hold until it is onterra firma. When large quantities are required, the pond is drained. These shell-fish are enormous creatures, the body with the claws being as long as a man’s arm. As the lobsters and cray-fish climb nimbly up the sides of the watery caravan, they look like a collection of purple-coloured monkeys or stunted baboons; and there is something frightful in the appearance and noiselessness of these chatterless simiæ, climbing about their liquid den, and approaching the surface to look at the spectator. They are sent to the metropolis in hampers, packed in fern in winter and in ice in summer.

The Americans in the large cities and inland towns seem to be as fond of lobster salads and curries as we Britishers are; and it is estimated, that there are annuallyconsumed in and about Boston, 700,000 lobsters, the prime cost of which is £16 per 1,000. This makes the snug little sum of £11,200. 500,000 of the lobsters come from the State of Maine, and the remaining 200,000 are taken from Massachusetts Bay. About 700 men are engaged in catching the lobsters, and some 800 tons of shipping in carrying them to Boston, exclusive of what are conveyed by steamboat and railroad.

Here is a poetical narrative, of American origin, bearing upon this crustacean:—

THE LOBSTER.

Whereby hangeth a tayle, and eke a moral.

A Doctor and a Lawyer, went together merrily,Adown the North-west Arm to take a dip into the sea.Arrived, the Doctor coolly took a rather ‘heavy wet,’A Lobster just as coolly took the Doctor by the feet.He, careful man, his health and wind most prudently had heeded,And little thought that either toe an amputation needed;He felt the Lobster on his skill most cuttingly reflected,And to his surgical attempt decidedly objected.With ready forceps, tooth and nail, the lobster set to work—While all in vain the Doctor tried to baulk him by a jerk.‘Midst present pain his anxious thoughts began afar to roam,On forceps, scalpels, lancets, knives, and stout probangsat home.But,lacking these, the foe to face, he felt somehow afraid,And therefore lustily he called the Lawyer to his aid.He, cunning man, well versed in quirks and quibbles of the law,Sagaciously searched how to find in Lobster’s claim a flaw.The claim oftenureto rebut, at once, he vainly sought;Possession was nine points, he knew, and so the Lobster thought.He saw the lobster quite secure within his own domain,And to entice him thence began to work his ready brain.One foot the Doctor yet had free, and this, with shuffling gait,He offered to the other claw—a very tempting bait.But, gently moving back, he ’scaped the meditated nip,And shoreward still, with toe outstretched, most cannily did skip.At length from his domain withdrawn, the Lobster gasps for air,And vainly strives to battle with this wise confederate pair.The Lawyer charged him with assault, and quick a claim put in,That for the same the damages be laid upon his skin.Attachment writ at once he took, upon the offendingclaws;And moved he should be boiled alive, in vengeance for the laws.The Lobster in his mute amaze, allowed thatclauseto pass;Nor had the foresight to exclaim ‘Produce your capias!’So borne along all bodily, and sore against his will,The Lobster proved the heavy weight, of more than lobster’s ill.For they not onlyboiledbutate, his body, claws and all;And most provokingly enjoyed the inglorious festival.They cracked his shell, and cracked their jokes—pulled off that leg and this—Forgetful all of ‘Nil nisi bonum de mortuis.’Now hence be warned, ye bustling men, and in your projects pause—Beware into your neighbour’s pot, how you thrust in your claws.Ye busy wights! reflect ye how this luckless Lobster got,By injudicious meddling, from cold water into hot.To tread upon another’s toes, I pray be not too bold—But when you’re incoldwater, try tokeepthe water cold.

A Doctor and a Lawyer, went together merrily,

Adown the North-west Arm to take a dip into the sea.

Arrived, the Doctor coolly took a rather ‘heavy wet,’

A Lobster just as coolly took the Doctor by the feet.

He, careful man, his health and wind most prudently had heeded,

And little thought that either toe an amputation needed;

He felt the Lobster on his skill most cuttingly reflected,

And to his surgical attempt decidedly objected.

With ready forceps, tooth and nail, the lobster set to work—

While all in vain the Doctor tried to baulk him by a jerk.

‘Midst present pain his anxious thoughts began afar to roam,

On forceps, scalpels, lancets, knives, and stout probangsat home.

But,lacking these, the foe to face, he felt somehow afraid,

And therefore lustily he called the Lawyer to his aid.

He, cunning man, well versed in quirks and quibbles of the law,

Sagaciously searched how to find in Lobster’s claim a flaw.

The claim oftenureto rebut, at once, he vainly sought;

Possession was nine points, he knew, and so the Lobster thought.

He saw the lobster quite secure within his own domain,

And to entice him thence began to work his ready brain.

One foot the Doctor yet had free, and this, with shuffling gait,

He offered to the other claw—a very tempting bait.

But, gently moving back, he ’scaped the meditated nip,

And shoreward still, with toe outstretched, most cannily did skip.

At length from his domain withdrawn, the Lobster gasps for air,

And vainly strives to battle with this wise confederate pair.

The Lawyer charged him with assault, and quick a claim put in,

That for the same the damages be laid upon his skin.

Attachment writ at once he took, upon the offendingclaws;

And moved he should be boiled alive, in vengeance for the laws.

The Lobster in his mute amaze, allowed thatclauseto pass;

Nor had the foresight to exclaim ‘Produce your capias!’

So borne along all bodily, and sore against his will,

The Lobster proved the heavy weight, of more than lobster’s ill.

For they not onlyboiledbutate, his body, claws and all;

And most provokingly enjoyed the inglorious festival.

They cracked his shell, and cracked their jokes—pulled off that leg and this—

Forgetful all of ‘Nil nisi bonum de mortuis.’

Now hence be warned, ye bustling men, and in your projects pause—

Beware into your neighbour’s pot, how you thrust in your claws.

Ye busy wights! reflect ye how this luckless Lobster got,

By injudicious meddling, from cold water into hot.

To tread upon another’s toes, I pray be not too bold—

But when you’re incoldwater, try tokeepthe water cold.

Lord Anson mentions having caught cray-fish at Juan Fernandez of eight and nine lbs. weight, that were of an excellent flavour. Lobsters are also found in such quantities on the same island, that the fishermen have no other trouble to take them than to strew a little meat upon the shore, and when they come to devour the bait, as they do in immense numbers, to turn them on their backs with a stick. This is gravely asserted by the Abbé Molina, in hisHistory of Chile, so I suppose it must be true. Turning a turtle is a common practice, but I should think it somewhat difficultto get a lobster on its back. By this simple method thousands of lobsters are taken annually; and the tails, which are in high estimation, dried and sent to Valparaiso.

A late traveller, in hisLife in China, describes a very peculiar dish:—‘When our party of six had seated themselves at the centre table, my attention,’ he says, ‘was attracted by acovereddish, something unusual at a Chinese meal. On a certain signal, the cover was removed; and presently the face of the table was covered with juvenile crabs, which made their exodus from the dish with all possible rapidity. The crablets had been thrown into a plate of vinegar just as the company sat down—such an immersion making them more brisk and lively than usual. But the sprightly sport of the infant crabs was soon checked, by each guest seizing which he could, dashing it into his mouth, crushing it between his teeth, and swallowing the whole morsel without ceremony. Determined to do as the Chinese did, I tried this novelty also with one—with two. I succeeded, finding the shell soft and gelatinous, for they were tiny creatures, not more than a day or two old. But I was compelled to give in to the third, which had resolved to take vengeance, and gave my lower lip a nip so sharp and severe, as to make me relinquish my hold, and likewise desist from any further experiments of this nature.’

Shrimps (Crangon vulgaris) and prawns (Palæmon serratus) frequent shallow waters along the sandy coasts of the British Islands, of America, Europe, and indeed most countries. Besides furnishing nutriment to great numbers of fish, aquatic birds, &c., they are in great request in England for the table—the consumption in Londonalone being enormous. In 1850, 192,295 gallons were received and sold at Billingsgate Market, weighing 875 tons, and valued at £6,000. In the Sandwich Islands, shrimps are eaten alive as abonne bouche, with salad and vinegar; but we prefer them in this country boiled. Shrimping by the dredge net, or sweep net, affords abundant employment to numerous persons. On the North American coasts shrimps are more plentiful than on the European shores. At times, the waters of the Straits of Northumberland appear as if thickened with masses of shrimps moving about, their course being plainly indicated by the fish of all descriptions which follow in their wake, and feed upon them greedily. Potted shrimps are considered a dainty, and meet ready sale in the metropolis as a breakfast relish.

Thosebons vivantswho are fond of these delicious small fry, will no doubt eat them with an increased relish after reading the following paragraph:—

‘The office of shrimps seems to be that analogous to some of the insects on land, whose task is to clear away the remains of dead animal matter after the beasts and birds of prey have been satiated. If a dead small bird or frog be placed where ants can have access to it, those insects will speedily reduce the body to a closely cleared skeleton. The shrimp family, acting in hosts, as speedily remove all traces of fish or flesh from the bones of any dead animal exposed to their ravages. They are, in short, the principal scavengers of the ocean; and, notwithstanding their office, they are highly prized as nutritious and delicious food.’

‘Amongst the shell-fish tribe,’ says a writer in theCaledonian Mercury, ‘theprawnis considered the most delicious, and of course is the most costly. Prawn-fish,which are about double or three times the size of a shrimp, are in general sold at the rate of 1s.per dozen. This high price may be owing to their scarcity, in comparison with the quantity of shrimps sent to market, with a view to give prawn-fishers encouragement to prosecute the trade. The prawn-fish are not what many people suppose, ‘only shrimps of a larger size.’ Their heads and fore-claws are differently marked, showing at once the distinction. The habits of the two fish are also different. The shrimp burrows in the sand, causing fishermen to use trawl-nets for their capture. They are caught in greatest numbers on sandbanks, about the entrance of estuaries. The prawn-fish chiefly locate amongst rocks, and hard bottom, where there is much tangle and sea-weed. The fishermen at Bognor, in Sussex, and some place on the Isle of Wight, catch prawns in wicker-worked baskets, shaped exactly like those wire-worked rat-traps that have the entrance on the top, so that ‘when the rat gets in, it can’t get out again.’ Several hundreds of these baskets baited with any sort of garbage, fish heads, &c., are set amongst the rocks at low water, where they remain until the tide has flown to its full, and again ebbed. The baskets are then overhauled, to see what luck. Prawn-fishing, like every other description of fishing, is not always to be depended on. Some tides, not one prawn may be found in hundreds of baskets; at other times every trap may have secured its victims. From five up to 60, and as high as 70 prawns have at times been taken in one trap. The baskets with which the English fishermen catch lobsters are just of the same shape as the prawn-trap, the only difference being that they are of larger dimensions.’

Immense prawns (Camaroes) are very plentiful at Rio Janeiro. Strangers are often told as a joke, that these are kept in pits, and fed with the dead bodies of slaves, thrown to them from time to time, and many people will in consequence not touch them.

The following instructions for cooking shrimps and prawns may be acceptable in out-of-the-way localities, where they are bought alive from the fishermen:—

‘To dress shrimps and prawns, so that they might at once be tasty and look well to the eye, is considered a very nice point for the cook to perform. A pot, containing a pickle that will nearly float an egg, is put on the fire. When the pickle begins to boil, the prawns (all alive) are put into it, which of course sends the pickle below the boiling point for a time. A brisk fire must be kept up under the pot, and when the pickle again boils up, the prawns are cooked. Should they not be boiled sufficiently, they are as soft as pulp, and if boiled too much, they are hard as horn. The fish are removed from the pot and spread on a table, sprinkling over them a little salt. A cloth is then thrown over the whole, which keeps in the steam. By this operation, the steam melts the salt, and imparts to the prawn that beautiful red and glossy appearance seen on them whilst in the London fishmongers’ shops.’

It might probably be possible to save some of our refuse shrimps, which get too stale to find customers here, and dry them for export to the East, where they are in great demand. The trade in dried shrimps in Siam amounts to 60 tons a year; and they cannot get enough of them to pound up with their rice.

Dried prawns form a considerable article of trade in the Philippines. The Malays and the Siamese, who eatdried prawns and dried mussels, must have very tough stomachs to digest them, and it would take an ostrich’s gizzard, one would suppose, to triturate other tough dried molluscs used, in different localities, such as theHaliotisdried. Thus the ‘pearl womb,’ as the mantle or flesh of the pearl-oyster (Meleagrina margaritifera) is called, is strung and dried, and when cooked with cassia buds is eaten with rice. Numerous minute pearls are often found in this substance (as is sometimes the case with the common oyster) during mastication.

There is scope enough to be found for drying this mollusc, when a government pearl fishery is on at Ceylon, for then millions of pearl-oysters are thrown on the shore, after being opened, and left there to rot.

Under the name ofBalachongorgnapee, there is a mess made in Burmah, Sumatra, &c., of prawns, shrimps, or any cheap fish, pounded into a consistent mass, and frequently allowed to become partially putrid. It is largely used by the natives as a condiment to their rice, as no vegetable food is deemed palatable without it; and a considerable trade is carried on with it, its use extending to every country from China to Bengal.

In all populous cities there is great consumption of oysters, both of the large common kinds termed ‘scuttlemouths’ by the venders, and of the more expensive and small delicate fed ‘native.’ Even the mangrove or tree oyster is esteemed in the tropics. One hundred or two hundred of these parasitic oysters may often be found on a single bough, pendent in the water, in the rivers of Africa, or the West Indies.

We can well conceive the astonishment of Columbus and his mariners when, in the Gulf of Paria, they firstfound oysters clinging to the branches, their mouths open as was supposed, to receive the dew, which was afterwards to be transformed into pearls.

The spawn of the fish is attached by a glutinous substance to any object with which it comes in contact, and the adhesion continues until the oyster is forcibly removed. On the southern coasts of the United States, in Florida and Louisiana, oysters may thus be seen growing as it were on trees, or the limbs at least of those which have sunk into the water, by the weight of the foliage, or from any other cause. The opossum and the racoon feed upon these oysters, procuring them by lifting the boughs from the water, and hence the American name racoon oysters, a term they are universally known by. They are of a long slender shape, and growing very rapidly, always have thin and delicate shells.

The value of the oysters sold in the city of New York now exceeds £1,250,000 sterling. The money invested in the trade by 150 wholesale dealers is about £100,000, and the number of persons employed in the business, directly or indirectly, including saloon keepers, street venders, &c., is 50,000. Of the whole amount sold in the markets, about two-thirds come from Virginia, which has a more extensive oyster trade than any other State in the Union. The residue is obtained, according to theNew York Herald, from the waters of their own State, and those of New Jersey—the East River furnishing the largest quantity. A considerable supply is procured from Shrewsbury and York Bay; but very few of the latter are consumed in the city, as they are cultivated particularly for the western market. One of the most interesting features in the business is the transplanting of oysters, or their removal from the‘rock,’ or natural bed, to an artificial one. This process is of peculiar importance, and absolutely necessary to the successful prosecution of the trade. It would, in fact, be next to impossible to supply the market during the whole year, but for the general system of transplanting which is pursued by all the dealers. More than a million dollars’ worth are removed every year to artificial beds, and by this means prevented from spawning, which renders them unfit for use. Thus, a large proportion of the East River oysters were originally obtained from the North River, where the soil and water are not considered so favourable to their cultivation. Of the fifty thousand persons engaged in the business, the majority, of course, are dependent upon their own labour for support; but there are a considerable number of the dealers, or, as they might more properly be called, oyster merchants, who possess large fortunes, amassed from the sale of oysters alone. They are amongst the most worthy of her citizens, and New York is not a little indebted to their enterprise for her extensive business in what has now become an indispensable article of food.

It is only within the last thirty years that the oyster trade was established in New York. Before that time, it is true, oysters were sold there; but the business transacted was exceedingly limited, and there was little or no inducement for persons to engage in it. Nearly all that were brought to market were procured from the natural beds, for the benefits to be obtained from planting were but imperfectly understood by a few of the dealers, or entirely unknown to them. In the course of a few years, however, the business grew into importance, and men of capital and enterprise engaged init. The planting of beds—a very essential part of the trade—was commenced; the few oyster boats, of diminutive size, engaged in supplying New York, became an immense fleet; an extensive trade began with Virginia; the East River became a mine of wealth to those who worked its beds; the coasts of the bays and the shores of the rivers were explored and given over to the tongs, the scraper, and the dredges of the oystermen. It was found that by removing the oyster from its natural bed to an artificial one, it could not only be increased in size, but improved in quality, and rendered fit for use at any period of the year. This was a very important matter to understand, for there are certain months when the oyster is unfit for use, in consequence of its being full of spawn. While they remained in the natural bed, they were always subject to this objection; but if not permitted to lie too long in the artificial one, they could be preserved free from spawn. Although they increased in size, they seldom or never became more numerous by transplanting. Hundreds of vessels are constantly employed, during certain months, in transplanting in the East River, in Prince’s Bay, and other parts of the State.

The appended summary will give some further idea of the extent of the oyster trade in New York:—

The following table will show the annual amount of sales of all kinds of oysters by the wholesale dealers in New York:—

Baltimore is another great seat of the American oyster trade. A single firm there has amassed, during the last ten years, a fortune of £500,000, by simply transporting oysters to the Western States, all of which were obtained at the oyster banks of the eastern shore of Virginia, and sent over the Baltimore and Ohio railroad to Cumberland, and thence to the Ohio river in stages. The firm paid to this railway company, in one year, for transporting oysters alone, above £7,000.

Another large and enterprising firm in Baltimore, forwards daily to the West, by way of the Susquehanna railroad, and the Pennsylvania improvements,eight tonsof oysters, in cans. The operations of this one concern comprise the opening of2,500 bushels of oysters per day, giving constant employment to 150 men and boys! The shells are carried for manure to all parts of Virginia and North Carolina. In the ‘shocking’ of oysters, the shells will increase about one fourth in measurement bulk; this would give a total of about 6,000,000 bushels of shells, which sell for one penny per bushel, making a return of £25,000 for the shells alone.

The whole shores of the Chesapeake Bay and itstributaries are adapted to the fattening of the oyster, and as but one year is required for a full growth in the beds, an immense profit accrues to those engaged in the business—a profit which is estimated at some 300 to 600 per cent. There were, a few years ago, 250 vessels engaged in the business, which averages about 900 bushels to the cargo, and requires nine to ten days for the trip. These vessels making, in the aggregate, 6,000 trips during the eight months in the year in which they are engaged, gives a total of 4,800,000 bushels per year sold in the Baltimore market. The oysters used to bring an average price of 1s.8d.per bushel, which makes a grand total of £160,000 per year paid wholesale for oysters by the dealers in Baltimore.

With the spread of population, and the progress of settlement in the interior States, the price of this shell fish is advancing, for a late number of theBaltimore Patriotstates:—

‘For some time past these delicious bivalves have been very scarce and in great demand, advancing materially in price. There are several causes for their upward tendency in value. First, in consequence of their scarceness, and the difficulty of procuring them, owing to cold, unfavourable weather. Secondly, an increased demand has sprung up from the west. Large numbers are being shipped in barrels, in the shell and otherwise, to Chicago, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Wheeling, Louisville, and, in fact, to almost every town and city beyond the Alleghenies. A sojourner in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, or even Iowa and Kansas, may, at this season of the year, sit down to a dish of fresh oysters, live and kicking, enjoying luxurious refreshment in comparatively small townsnearly 2,000 miles from Chesapeake. Large shipments of oysters are also making to New York, Boston, and various parts of the north, whilst millions are being put up in cans, hermetically sealed, and sent to all parts of the world. Not long ago, we saw a friendly letter from the mountains of Switzerland, boasting that the writer had just partaken of a dish of delicious Baltimore oysters. It would not surprise us to see the demand far out-reaching the supply, and a gradual augmentation of price. They are now bringing 1 dollar 25 cents to 1 dollar 62¾ cents per bushel at our wharves, and command 9 dollars to 10 dollars per barrel in the shell at Chicago. Equally high prices are given in all the western cities.’

In one of his recent messages to the Virginia legislature, Governor Wise states, that Virginia possesses an area of 1,680,000 acres of oyster beds, containing about 784,000,000 bushels of oysters. It is estimated that the mother oyster spawns annually at least 8,000,000; yet, notwithstanding this enormous productive power, and the vast extent of oyster beds, there is danger of the oyster being exterminated, unless measures are adopted to prevent fishermen from taking them at improper seasons of the year.

A bill was lately introduced in the Virginia legislature, the main features of which are to the following effect:—

1st. Prohibits the taking of oysters by non-residents. 2nd. Provides for the protection of oyster beds during the spawning season. 3rd. Taxes on licenses for taking and transporting oysters, calculated to yield an average of three and a half cents of revenue per bushel. 4th. The appointment of inspectors, &c., to superintend therenting of planting grounds. 5th. The purchase and equipment of four steamers for the enforcement of the law—said steamers to cost a total of 30,000 dollars, and to be employed at a yearly expense of about 7,000 dollars.

The oyster trade is extensively carried on at Boston. Messrs. Atwood have nine vessels exclusively employed in the business, five of which are clipper-built schooners, freighting oysters from the south. They have 75 acres of flats, near what is called White Island, on the Mystic river, where the fresh oysters of the south are transplanted, to grow and fatten in water much softer than their native element, and where they keep a supply in the summer months, and for the winter stock.

It is estimated that the quantity of oysters now planted in the waters of Newhaven harbour, United States, is 500,000 bushels. Estimating 200 oysters to the bushel, this would give one hundred millions of oysters. These oysters are for the early fall trade, and are apart from the enormous quantities imported and opened there during the winter months.

In the Plaquemines region of Louisiana, upwards of 500 men are engaged in the oyster trade, 150 of which number dredge the oysters from the bays, the rest are employed in conveying them to New Orleans. For this purpose, 170 small luggers, sloops, and schooners, of from five to fifteen tons burthen, are in use for five months in the year. During the summer months, they find employment in carrying shells from the islands to the forts and to the city. These made into concrete by a mortar of lime, sand, and hydraulic cement, form the most substantial and imperishable wall known. For public works in process of erection, the city streets, andornamental walks at private residences, the collection of oyster shells affords good summer employment to this class of persons. From the best information to be had on the subject, the parish of Plaquemines sends a weekly supply to the city of New Orleans of at least 4,000 barrels of oysters, amounting in value during the season to about £25,000.

A South African paper, of a late date, observes:—

‘The natives of this vicinity have recently begun to offer for sale bottles filled with oysters—not ‘natives’—separated from the shell, and floating in their own liquor. The unlimited supply of this delicious food, obtainable on the coast, now that the natives have acquired a notion of the trade, will enable many, to whom oysters had become things of memory, to renew again ‘the days of auld lang syne.’ The shells are so firmly attached to the rocks, that we do not think it would pay white men to follow this pursuit; at all events, they could not afford to sell the oysters cheap enough for extensive use. But the somewhat rough process adopted by ‘our coloured brethren’ (or rather ‘sisters,’ we believe), though it destroys the beauty of the fish, does not injure its flavour, which we can pronounce to be equal to that of the ‘real native’ of the British seas.’

Mussels are chiefly eaten by the lower classes, but they are also largely employed for bait, which all marine animals will take; some millions of them are used for this purpose at the fishing stations. In one district alone, their value for this object is £13,000.

A choice kind of large mussel, known under the name of Hambleton hookers, is taken out of the sea, and fattened in the Wyre, Lancashire, within reach of the tide.

Some of the mussels found along parts of the South American coasts, especially the Magellanic, and the Falkland Islands, are very large, about six inches long, by three broad. Dr. Pernety, in hisJournal of the Voyage to the Malouine islands, says,

‘We more than once attempted to eat some of these, but found them so full of pearls that it was impossible to chew them; the pearls being very hard, endangered the breaking of our teeth, and when they were broken in pieces, they left a kind of sand in the mouth, which was very disagreeable.’

Several species of gapers are used as food, both in Britain and on the Continent, as theMya arenaria, known to the fishermen about Southampton by the whimsical name ofold maids—in some parts of England and Ireland they are much used; and theMya truncata, which is very plentiful in the northern islands, where it is calledSmurslin, when boiled forms a supper dish. Though not so delicate as some of the other shell fish eaten, it is by no means unpalatable.

The scallop was held in high estimation by the ancients, and is still sought for in Catholic countries. ThePecten maximusis frequently used in England. When pickled and barrelled for sale, it is esteemed a great delicacy. Another species, thePecten opercularis, is employed for culinary purposes in Cornwall, where it is known by the name of frills, or queens. To our list of bivalves may be added theMactra solida, which is used as food by the common people about Dartmouth, and theVenus pullastra, called by the inhabitants of Devonshire, pullet, and eaten by them.

Large clams and mussels are eaten in the United States, but in the Lower British American Provincesthey are principally used as bait for fish. The scallops are also of very large size, and are more commonly eaten than they are with us.

Scalloped oysters, although very dainty eating, are most indigestible.

The business of digging clams is engaged in by a large number of persons on the North American coasts. There are two varieties, distinguished as the hard shell and the soft shell. They are eaten largely in spring, when they are in the best condition. Clams are much prized by persons residing at a distance from the sea coast, and they are frequently sent into the interior, where they meet a ready sale, as they can be sold at a very low price. They are salted and preserved in barrels, and used by fishermen as bait for cod-fish. For many years past the digging and salting of clams for the Boston market has been an important business. These shell-fish abound in the extensive flats at the mouths of some of the rivers. The flats are daily covered by the tide, and afford the feeding ground which the clams require. Clams multiply with astonishing rapidity: they are dug in the winter and spring. The business furnishes employment for men and boys, that in former years were occupied in winter fishing. The work is done, of course, at low water. When the tide is out, on pleasant winter days, one will often see gangs of 10, 20, or 50 men and boys busily employed in turning up the mud on the flats, picking up the clams, and putting them into buckets. The implement which they use is a stout fork with three flat prongs, each about an inch wide, and 10 or 12 inches long. The men go out on the flats in wherries, when the tide is retiring, and push an oar into the mud, and make fast the boat to it, and as soonas the water has left the boat, commence operations. When a bucket is filled, it is emptied into the boat. They continue their work until the tide comes in again sufficiently to float the boat, when they pull to the wharf. On many places on the shores of these flats there are groups of small huts, 10 or 12 feet square, with stone chimnies running up on the outside, furnished within with a small stove and two or three stools for seats. The clams are deposited in these huts, and in those parts of the day when the tide is in, so that the men cannot work out on the flats, and in stormy weather, they are employed in ‘shocking’ them, as it is called, that is, in opening the shell and taking out the clam, which is done with a small stout knife. As the clams are taken from the shell, they are dropped into a bucket; when the bucket is filled, they are emptied into a barrel. Around these huts, it is not uncommon to see heaps of clam shells larger than the huts themselves, the accumulation of the winter’s labour. The clam diggers sell the produce of their labour to traders, who send their teams round to the huts weekly or daily, according to the weather, carry them to their store-houses, and repack and salt them, and head them up in barrels, when they are ready for the market.

A species ofMurex(M. loco) is highly esteemed in Chile. It is very white and of a delicious taste, but rather tough; and in order to render it tender, it is generally beaten with a small stick before it is cooked.

The periwinkle (Turbo littoreus) is more extensively used as food than any of the other testaceous univalves. It would hardly be supposed that so trifling an article of consumption as periwinkles could form a matter of extensive traffic; but the quantity consumed annually inLondon has been estimated at 76,000 baskets, weighing 1,900 tons, and valued at £15,000. This well-known mollusc is found on all the rocks and shores of our own islands which are left uncovered by the tide, and also in America and other countries.

The cockneys and their visitors are deeply indebted to the industrious inhabitants of Kerara, near Oban, for a plenteous treat of this rather vulgar luxury; and the Kerarans are no less obliged to the Londoners for a never-failing market, for what now appears to be their general staple article. They are gathered by the poor people, who get 6d.a bushel for collecting them. From Oban they are forwarded to Glasgow, and thence to Liverpool,en routeto London. Very few are retained in transit, better profits being obtained in London, even after paying so much sea and land carriage.

Every week there are probably 30 tons or more of this insignificant edible sent up to London, from Glasgow, all of which are collected near Oban, and must be a means of affording considerable employment, and diffusing a considerable amount weekly in wages, amongst the numerous persons employed. The periwinkles are packed in bags, containing from two to three cwt. each, and keep quite fresh until they arrive at their ultimate destination. In London they sell at 3d.a pint.

Whelks (theBuccinum undatum) are another shell-fish which, though despised on the sea coasts, are a favourite dish, boiled or pickled, among the poorer classes in the metropolis, as the gusto manifested at the street-stalls in London evidences. Boys and children of a larger growth frequently indulge in a ‘hapenny’ or penny saucer of these dainties. Large quantities of whelks are transmitted from Mull to London; somesteamers from the north bring six or seven tons at a time.

Several species of snails (Helix) are employed for culinary purposes. The largest of these, theHelix pomatia, was a favourite dish among the Romans, who fattened them with bran sodden with wine. They are still used largely in many parts of Europe, during Lent, after having been fed with different kinds of herbs. The Africans and Brazilians eat snails.

TheHelix hortensishas also been employed as food, and they are prescribed medicinally, being administered like slugs in consumptive cases.

Many are familiar with the passage in Pliny (Hist.lib. ix., c. 56), who, on the authority of Varro, relates the incredible size to which the art of fattening had brought the snails. Even assuming the snails were AfricanAchatinaorBulimi, there must, one should think, be some mistake in the text, which says, ‘Cujus artis gloria in eam magnitudinem perducta sit, ut octoginta quadrantes caperent singularum calices.’ Pennant, referring to this and to Varro (De Re Rustica) says, ‘If we should credit Varro, they grew so large that the shells of some would hold ten quarts!’

People need not admire the temperance of the supper of the younger Pliny (Epist.lib. i.;Epist.xv.), which consisted of only a lettuce a-piece, three snails, two eggs, a barley cake, sweet wine and snow, in case his snails bore any proportion to those of Hirpinus.

Among the pictures in the dressing-rooms at Chiswick House, the seat of the Duke of Devonshire, there is one, by Murillo, of a beggar boy eating a snail pie.

The snail is now a very fashionable article of diet in Paris; and has also spread to America. Snails are eatenin Tuscany and Austria. They were highly esteemed by the Romans, our masters in gastronomy. In the provinces of France, where the vine is cultivated, snails of large size abound. They are gathered by the peasants, put in small pans for a few days, salt water thrown on them, to cause them to discharge whatever their stomachs may contain; then boiled, taken out of the shell, and eaten with a sauce, and considered a luxury by the vine dressers.

There are now 50 restaurants, and more than 1,200 private tables in Paris, where snails are accepted as a delicacy by from 8,000 to 10,000 consumers. The monthly consumption of this mollusc is estimated at half a million. The market price of the great vineyard snail is from 2s.to 3s.per 100; while those of the hedges, woods, and forests, bring only 1s.6d.to 2s.The proprietor of one snailery, in the vicinity of Dijon, is said to clear nearly £300 a year by his snails.

In Switzerland, where there are gardens in which they are fed in many thousands together, a considerable trade is carried on in them about the season of Lent; and at Vienna, a few years ago, seven of them were charged at an inn the same as a plate of veal or beef. The usual modes of preparing them for the table are either boiling, frying them in butter, or sometimes stuffing them with force-meat; but in whatever manner soever they are dressed, it is said their sliminess always in a great measure remains.

An anecdote is told of Drs. Black and Hutton, which shows how difficult it is for philosophy to wage a war with prejudice. It chanced that the two doctors had held some discourse together upon the folly of abstaining from feeding on the testaceous creatures of the land,while those of the sea were considered as delicacies. Wherefore not eat snails?—they are well known to be nutritious and wholesome—even sanative in some cases. The epicures of olden times enumerated among the richest and raciest delicacies the snails which were fed in the marble quarries of Lucca. The Italians still hold them in esteem. In short, it was determined that a gastronomic experiment should be made at the expense of the snails. The snails were procured, dieted for a time, then stewed for the benefit of the two philosophers: who had either invited no guest to their banquet, or found none who relished in prospect thepièce de resistance. A huge dish of snails was placed before them; but philosophers are but men after all; and the stomachs of both doctors began to revolt against the proposed experiment. Nevertheless, if they looked with disgust on the snails, they retained their awe for each other; and each conceiving the symptoms of internal revolt peculiar to himself, began with infinity of exertion to swallow, in very small quantities, the mess which he internally loathed. Dr. Black, at length, ‘showed the white feather,’ but in a very delicate manner, as if to sound the opinion of his messmate:—‘Doctor,’ he said, in his precise and quiet manner, ‘Doctor—do you not think that they taste a little—a very little, green?’ ‘Green! green, indeed—take them awa’, take them awa’,’ vociferated Dr. Hutton, starting up from table, and giving full vent to his feelings of abhorrence. And so ended all hopes of introducing snails into theircuisine.

At the town of Ulm, in Wurtemburg, on the left bank of the Danube, snails are fed in great quantities for various markets in Germany and Austria, but especially for that of Vienna, where they are esteemed a great delicacy, after having been fed upon strawberries.About 20,000 okes (each nearly 3 lbs.) of snails are annually exported from Crete, valued at 15,000 Turkish piastres.

The breed of large white snails in England is to be found all along the escarpment of the chalk range, and is not confined to Surrey. It is said to have been introduced into England by Sir Kenelm Digby, and was considered very nutritious and wholesome for consumptive patients. Indeed, to this day, considerable quantities are sold in Covent Garden market for this purpose. They are sometimes made into a mucilaginous broth, and at others swallowed in a raw state.

In the Island of Bourbon, the French use them to make a soup for the sick.

At Cape Coast Castle the luxuries of the natives are fish soup, made of dried unsalted fish, and snail soup with land crabs in it; and beyond Ashantee the food consists of plantains and large snails, 300 or 400 of which dried on a string sell for a dollar. These snails are the great AfricanAchatina, which are the largest of all land-snails, attaining a length of eight inches.

A species of barnacle, called the parrot bill (Balanus psittacus), is much esteemed by the inhabitants of Chile. From 10 to 20 of these animals inhabit as many small separate cells, formed in a pyramid of a cretaceous substance. These pyramids are usually attached to the steepest parts of rocks at the water’s edge, and the animal derives its subsistence from the sea, by means of a little hole at the top of each cell. The shell consists of six valves, two large and four small; the large ones project externally in the form of a parrot’s bill, whence the animal has received its specific name. When detached from the rocks, they are kept alive in their cells for four or five days, during which time theyoccasionally protrude their bills as if to breathe. They are of different sizes, though the largest do not exceed an inch in length, and are very white, tender, and excellent eating.[36]Capt. P. P. King, R.N., confirms this, and says they form a common and highly esteemed food of the natives, the flesh equalling in richness and delicacy that of the crab.

ANNELIDA.

Palolo is the native name of a species of sea-worm (Palolo viridis), which is found in some parts of Samoa, the Navigator’s Islands, in the South Pacific Ocean—and of which the following singular account is given by the Rev. J. B. Stair, of the South Sea Missions. They come regularly in the months of October and November, during portions of two days in each month, viz: the day before and the day on which the moon is in her last quarter. They appear in much greater numbers on the second than on the first day of their rising, and are only observed for two or three hours in the early part of each morning of their appearance. At the first dawn of day, they may be felt by the hand swimming on the surface of the water; and as the day advances their numbers increase, so that by the time the sun has risen, thousands may be observed in a very small space, sporting merrily during their short visit to the surface of the ocean. On the second day they appear at the same time, and in a similar manner, but in such countless myriads, that the surface of the ocean is covered with them for a considerable extent. On each day, aftersporting for an hour or two, they disappear until the next season, and not one is ever observed during the intervening time. In size they may be compared to a very fine straw, and are of various colours and lengths, green, brown, white, and speckled, and in appearance and mode of swimming, resemble very small snakes. They are exceedingly brittle, and if broken into many pieces, each piece swims off as though it were an entire worm. The natives are exceedingly fond of them, and calculate with great exactness the time of their appearance, which is looked forward to with great interest. The worms are caught in small baskets, beautifully made, and when taken on shore are tied up in leaves in small bundles, and baked. Great quantities are eaten undressed; but either dressed or undressed, are esteemed a great delicacy. Such is the desire to eat Palolo by all classes, that immediately the fishing parties reach the shore, messengers are dispatched in all directions with quantities to parts of the island on which none appear.’

At a recent exhibition of paintings, a lady and her son were regarding with much interest a picture which the catalogue designated asLuther at the Diet of Worms. Having descanted at some length upon its merits, the boy remarked, ‘Mother, I see Luther and the table, but where are the worms?’

CEPHALOPODA.

In recent times, and in some parts of the Levant even now, as we learn from Forbes and Spratt’sLycia, the cuttle-fish of different species were used as articles offood; and we know from the works of travellers, that in other parts of the world, when cooked, they are esteemed as luxuries.

Besides the common cuttle-fish (Sepia octopodia), two or three other singular species are found on the Chilian coasts of the Pacific. The first, the ungulated cuttle-fish (Sepia unguiculata), is of a great size, and instead of suckers, has paws armed with a double row of pointed nails, like those of a cat, which it can, at its pleasure, draw into a kind of sheath. This fish is of a delicate taste, but is not very common. The second is named (Sepia tunicata), from its body being covered with a second skin, in the form of a tunic; this is transparent, and terminates in two little semicircular appendages like wings, which project from either side of the tail. Many wonderful and incredible stories are told by sailors of the bulk and strength of this fish; it is however certain that it is frequently caught of 150 lbs. weight, on the coast of Chile, and the flesh is esteemed a great delicacy. The sea around Barbados is frequented by a species of the orderCephalopoda, which is used as an article of food by the lower classes of the inhabitants, namely the bastard cuttle-fish, or calmar, (Loligo sagitatta, Lam.).

The flesh of the large cephalopodous animals, (Loligoof Lamark;les Calmarsof Cuvier,) was esteemed as a delicacy by the ancients. Most of the eastern natives, and those of the Polynesian Islands, partake of it, and esteem it as food; they may be seen exposed for sale in the bazaars or markets throughout India.

The natives of most of the islands in the China Seas dry theSepiæandOctopi, as well as the soft parts of theHaliotis,Turbo,Hippopus,Tridacna, &c., and make use of them as articles of food. But from my little experience of this kind of diet, notwithstanding theassertion of the learned Bacon, in hisExperiment Solitary touching Cuttle-ink, that the cuttle is accounted a delicate meat, and is much in request, I should say that it is as indigestible and unnutritious as it is certainly tough and uninviting. Cephalopods, however, are eaten at the present day on some parts of the Mediterranean coasts; and in Hampshire I have seen the poor people collect assiduously theSepiæand employ them as food.

The common snail of the Meiacoshimahs is eaten by the natives, as theHelix aspersaandH. pomatiaare occasionally in Europe.

The Malays are fond of theCerithium telescopiumandpalustrefound in the Mangrove swamps. They throw them on their wood fires, and when sufficiently cooked, break off the sharp end of the spine, and suck the tail of the animal through the opening.

‘The poor people of the Philippines relish theArca inequivalvis, boiling them as we do cockles or mussels; the flesh, however, is red and very bad-flavoured. SomeMonodontawhich I have eaten among the Korean Islands are quite peppery, and bite the tongue, producing the same unpleasant effects upon that organ as the root of theArum maculatum, or leaves of the Taro, but in much less intense degree; and a species ofMytilus, found in the same locality, has very similar unpalatable qualities.’[37]

Of the several species of urchins or sea-eggs, one, theEchinus albus, is eaten by the Chilians and others. The white urchin is of a globular form, and about three inches in diameter; the shell and spines are white, but the interior substance is yellowish and of an excellent taste.

There is a marine delicacy of the Chinese which must not be passed unnoticed; it is a kind of sea-slug, varieties ofHolothuria, fished for on the coral reefs of the Eastern seas, and known under the names ofBêche-de-merandTripang.

When dried it is an ugly looking dirty-brown colored substance, very hard and rigid until softened by water, and a very lengthened process of cooking, after which it becomes soft and mucilaginous. It is rendered down into a sort of thick soup, after partaking of which a Chinaman sleeps in the seventh heaven of Chinese bliss. It looks like a dried sausage or blood-pudding, and some resemble a prickly cucumber. There are at least 33 different varieties enumerated by the Chinese traders and others skilled in its classification, for fashion and custom have caused each variety to have a different market. While the gourmand of the South smacks his lips on the juicy white and black, the less cultivated taste of those at the North is satisfied with the red and more inferior varieties. One of the inferior kinds is slender, and of a dark brown colour, soft to the touch, and leaves a red stain on the hands; another is of a grey colour and speckled; a third is large and a dark yellow, with a rough skin and tubercles on its side. The second kind is often eaten raw by the natives, as I have seen a red herring eaten raw. The price varies from £7 to £14 the picul, of 133 lbs., and as there are about 1,000 of the slugs in a picul, they are worth from 2d.to 4d.each, according to quality, wholesale.

The process of curing and preparation for market is very simple. The slug, on being taken from the boat, is simmered over a fire in an iron caldron for abouthalf-an-hour, after which it is thrown out upon the ground, and the operation of opening commences, this being effected by a longitudinal cut along the back with a sharp knife. It is then again placed in the caldron and boiled in salt water, with which a quantity of the bark of the mangrove has been mixed, for about three hours, when the outer skin will begin to peel off. It is now sufficiently boiled, and after the water has been drained off, the slugs are arranged in the drying-houses (small huts covered with mats) upon frames of split bamboo spread out immediately under the roof. Each slug is carefully placed with the part that has been cut open facing downwards, and a fire is made underneath, the smoke of which soon dries the tripang sufficiently to permit its being packed in bags or baskets for exportation.

Mr. Wingrove Cooke, in his cleverly described account of a Chinese banquet, thus narrates his impression of the dish prepared from them: ‘The next course was expected with a very nervous excitement. It was a stew of sea-slugs. As I have seen them at Macao they are white, but as served at Ningpo they are green. I credit the Imperial academician’s as the orthodox dish. They are slippery, and very difficult to be handled by inexperienced chopsticks; but they are most succulent and pleasant food, not at all unlike in flavour to the green fat of a turtle. If a man cannot eat anything of a kind whereof he has not seen his father and grandfather eat before, we must leave him to his oysters, and his periwinkles, and his cray-fish, and not expect him to swallow the much more comely sea-slug. But surely a Briton, who has eaten himself into a poisonous plethora upon mussels, has no right to hold up his handsand eyes at a Chinaman enjoying his honest well-cooked stew ofbêche-de-mer.’

The peculiarities of this animal have been thus graphically described: ‘It can stand erect and graze on the sea grasses, or crawl on its belly, and digest the contents of sea-shells sufficient to fill a cabinet; harder and bigger than a brick, it can yet go through a lady’s ring: its natural shape is that of a cucumber, yet it will take the mould of any vessel in which it is placed: apparently without sight, night is the time it collects its food: furnished with teeth, they are only used to hold on by, while at the opposite end the fish gapes to receive its tiny prey, which it draws in by feelers thrust forward for the purpose. Opened by the conchologist, he will be rewarded with a store of minute shells most perfectly cleaned: boiled and dried it reduces to one-twelfth its weight and one-fifth its size: resoaked, it expands to nearly its former dimensions; but damped, it becomes glue, nasty and disagreeable: sliced up and boiled it becomes isinglass, of use to none but the Chinese gourmand. The reefs of the Archipelago have been ransacked for it, and many a risk has been run in procuring it from the Cannibal Isles of the Pacific. The main supplies for the China market, are furnished by the Celebes proas. The industrious merchants of this island bring it in their fleets from Torres Straits, and the far-off reefs of New Guinea, and collect it from every islet and village in the Archipelago. Other supplies with this find their way to the Dutch and Spanish trading ports on the larger islands, and are from them shipped to Batavia, Singapore, and Manila. From this last port a few Spanish vessels have procured it in the Sooloo Sea; but this fishery, as well as allthe others well known, has yielded its best supplies, and the enhanced price in China adds inducement to seek out reefs less frequented for more abundant yield. At the above-named ports it commands, for mixed cargoes, a higher price than in China itself. American vessels are constantly engaged in this trade in the South Pacific, and I noticed recently that two vessels from San Francisco had procured cargoes from the Southern Isles, and were on their way to Manila or China. It is a business in which, to be successful, no little tact is required to deal with the treacherous natives, as well as a knowledge of curing and preparing for the market; but it is one that will long give a great return for small investments to the daring and successful adventurers.’

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