Part 21

Both these species are in great demand for the table, the former chiefly as sauce, and the latter to eat as a relish at breakfast or with the last courses at dinner. They are an agreeable repast, and more easily digestible than either crabs or lobsters.

The mode in which they are caught is generally by a kind of net called a putting net, which is fixed to the end of a long pole, and pushed along upon the sand in shallow water. Prawns in some places are caught in wicker baskets, similar in shape to those which are used for the catching of crabs (263).

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CLASS VI.--WORMS.

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270. _The MEDICINAL LEECH_ (Hirudo medicinalis), _is a worm-shaped animal of olive-black colour, with six yellowish lines on the upper part of the body, and spotted with yellow beneath._

_When fully extended, the leech is generally two or three inches in length. It is found in stagnant and muddy waters._

The use of leeches in medicine is to diminish the accumulation of blood in any particular part of the body. This they do by fixing themselves to the spot, forming a hole with three sharp teeth which are situated triangularly in their mouth, and sucking the blood through the wound. When they have drawn sufficient, they are easily loosened by putting upon them a small quantity of salt, pepper, or vinegar.

Leeches are caught in various ways, but one of the best is to throw bundles of weeds into the water which they inhabit. These, if taken out a few hours afterwards, will generally be found to contain a considerable number. They are collected from several of the rivers in the south of England, and are kept for sale sometimes, many thousands together, in casks or tubs of spring water. This is frequently changed, and all the slime and filth which exude from their bodies is carefully washed away.

It is said that if leeches be kept in glass vessels they will indicate a change of weather, by becoming at such times peculiarly restless and active.

271. _The OFFICINAL CUTTLE-FISH_ (Sepia officinalis), _is a marine animal, with somewhat oval body nearly surrounded by a margin, eight short and pointed arms, and two tentacula four times as long as the arms, all furnished with numerous small cup-shaped suckers._

_These animals are found in considerable numbers in the European seas._

By the ancients, cuttle-fish were in great esteem as a delicacy for the table; and, even at the present day, they are frequently eaten by the Italians, and by the inhabitants of other countries on the shores of the Mediterranean.

There is, in the middle of their body, an oval bone, thick in the middle, and thin and sharp at the edges, light, spongy, and of whitish colour. These bones were formerly employed in medicine, and are still kept in the druggists' shops. When dried and pulverized, they are used by silversmiths as moulds, in which they cast spoons, rings, and other small work. When burnt or calcined, they are useful for the cleaning and polishing of silver and other hard substances, and sometimes for correcting the acidity of wines.

The body of the cuttle-fish is furnished with a vessel that contains a considerable quantity of dark-coloured or inky fluid, which the animal emits into the water, to conceal its retreat when alarmed by the approach of its enemies. And it is generally supposed that the article called _Indian ink_ is this black fluid, in an inspissated or hardened state, and perfumed with musk and other substances.

272. _The PEARL-BEARING MYA_ (Mya margaritifera) _is a testaceous animal, having an oblong double or bivalve shell of somewhat oval shape, but narrower towards the middle than at the ends, and covered externally with a dark-coloured rough epidermis or skin, except on the protuberant parts near the hinge: one of the shells at the hinge has a single tooth or prominent part, which fits into a forked one in the other._

_The general depth of the shells is two inches, and breadth about five inches._

_Pearl-bearing myas are found in fresh-water rivers in many parts of Britain, and in those of most other countries within the arctic circle. The river Tay in Scotland, and the Conwy in Wales, are particularly noted for them._

In the river Tay some of these shells are found to contain good pearls; but fine ones are very scarce, and the greater part are of little or no value. They are of various shapes, round, oval, or elongated, and cylindrical, hemispherical, and resembling buttons. Several of the oblong ones have a contraction towards the middle, which gives them the appearance of two pearls joined together.

Pearls are a calculus, or morbid concretion, formed in consequence of some external injury which the shell receives, particularly from the operations of certain minute worms which occasionally bore even quite through to the animal. The pearls are formed in the inside on these places. Hence it is easy to ascertain, by the inspection of the outside only, whether a shell is likely to contain pearls. If it be quite smooth, without cavity, perforation, or callosity, it may with certainty be pronounced to contain none. If, on the contrary, the shell be pierced or indented by worms, there will always be found either pearls or the embryos of pearls. It is possible, by artificial perforations of the shells, to cause the formation of these substances. The process which has been chiefly recommended is to drill a small hole through the shell, and to fill this hole with a piece of brass wire, rivetting it on the outside like the head of a nail; and the part of the wire which pierces the interior shining coat of the shell will, it is said, become covered with a pearl.

As to the value of British pearls, some have been found of size so large as to be sold for 20l. each and upwards; and 80l. was once offered and refused for one of them. It is reported in Wales, that a pearl, from the river Conwy, which was presented to the queen of Charles the Second, was afterwards placed in the regal crown.

273. _The ORIENTAL PEARL MUSCLE_ (Mytilus margaritiferus) _to which we are indebted for nearly all the pearls of commerce, has a flattened and somewhat circular shell, about eight inches in diameter; the part near the hinge bent, or transverse, and imbricated (or covered like slates on a house) with several coats which are toothed at the edges._

_Some of the shells are externally of sea-green colour, others are chesnut, or reddish with white stripes or marks; and others whitish with green marks._

_These shells are found both in the American and Indian seas._

The principal pearl fisheries are off the coasts of Hindostan and Ceylon. The fishing usually commences about the month of March, and occupies many boats and a great number of hands. Each boat has generally twenty-one men, of whom one is the captain, who acts as pilot; ten row and assist the divers, and the remainder are divers. The latter go down into the sea alternately by five at a time. To accelerate their descent they have a perforated stone of eighteen or twenty pounds weight, fastened by a cord to their great toe, or to some other part of their body. The depth of water through which they pass is from four to ten fathoms; and they collect the muscles into a bag of net-work which they hang about their necks. When desirous of ascending, they pull a rope as a signal to their companions in the boat to draw them up. They are often known to descend as many as forty or fifty times in a day, and at each plunge to return with more than a hundred shells. The usual time for the divers to remain under water does not much exceed two minutes, though some are able to continue immersed more than five minutes.

When the muscles are taken out of the boats, they are placed in heaps on the shore, where they continue about ten days, till the animals become quite putrid. They are then opened and searched for the pearls. One muscle sometimes contains many pearls, a hundred and upwards, large and small; and sometimes a hundred muscles have been opened without yielding a single pearl large enough to be of any value.

The pearls are sorted according to their size, by being passed through large brass sieves, or through saucers with round holes in the bottom. After having been sorted, they are drilled; and then washed in salt water to prevent any stains which might be left by the drilling. The arranging of them on strings is considered the most difficult task of a pearl merchant, in consequence of the correctness of judgment which is requisite in classing them according to their value.

The value of pearls is estimated by their size, roundness, colour and brightness. A handsome necklace of pearls, smaller than large peas, is worth from 170l. to 300l. whilst one of pearls not larger than pepper-corns may not be worth more than 20l. The King of Persia has a pear-shaped pearl so large and pure as to have been valued at 110,000l. sterling. The largest round pearl that has been known belonged to the Great Mogul, and was about two-thirds of an inch in diameter. Pearls from the fishery of Ceylon are considered more valuable in England than those from any other part of the world. The smaller kinds are called _seed_ or _dust pearls_, and are of comparatively small value, being sold by the ounce to be converted into powder.

_Nacre_ or _mother-of-pearl_ is the inner part of the shell of the pearl muscle. This is of a brilliant and beautifully white colour, and is usually separated from the external part by aqua-fortis, or the lapidary's mill. Pearl muscle shells are on this account an important article of traffic to China and many parts of India, as well as to the different countries of Europe. They are manufactured into beads, snuff-boxes, buttons, and spoons, fish and counters, for card-players, and innumerable other articles.

The pearl muscles are not considered good as food; though, after having been dried in the sun, they are sometimes eaten by the lower classes of people in the countries near which they are found.

274. _The COMMON or EDIBLE MUSCLE_ (Mytilus edulis, Fig. 79) _is a testaceous animal, with a smooth double or bivalve shell of oblong oval form, pointed, and slightly keel-shaped at the beak, flatted and somewhat curved on one side._

_The colour is generally blackish, and the length about three inches._

_This species of muscle is found adhering to sub-marine rocks by certain silky threads, which it forms from its own body; and it is common both in the Indian and European seas._

In many parts of Europe muscles are nearly as much in request for the table as oysters; and at Rochelle, and some other places, modes are adopted of increasing their excellence, by placing them, after they are taken from the sea, in pools or ditches where the sea-water is stagnant, and introduced only at particular periods as it is wanted. Muscles are caught nearly through the whole year, though they are considered best in the autumn.

To some constitutions they are an unwholesome food, producing inflammation, eruptions on the skin, and an intolerable itching over the whole body; the best remedies for which are said to be a liberal use of oil, emetics, or milk.

275. _The OYSTER_ (Ostrea edulis, Fig. 77) _is a testaceous animal, too well known to need any description._

_It is found affixed to rocks, or in large beds, both in the European and Indian seas._

The use of oysters as food has rendered them celebrated in all ages. The ancient Roman writers speak of them as in great request by that luxurious people. Pliny relates that in his time they were considered so exquisite as, when in perfection, to have been sold for enormous prices; and that Apicius, the notorious epicure or glutton, invented a peculiar method of preserving and fattening them.

Of all the European oysters, the largest are those that are caught off the coast of Normandy, and with which Paris is principally supplied. But the best are of middle or somewhat small size, and are caught in the waters of Malden and Colne in Essex, or near the mouth of the Thames. They are dredged up by a net (with an iron scraper at the mouth) which is dragged by a rope from a boat over the beds; and then stored in large pits formed for the purpose, and furnished with sluices through which, at spring tides, the salt water is suffered to flow. In these pits they acquire their full quality, and become fit for the table in six or eight weeks. The most delicious oysters are considered to be those which are fattened in the salt-water creeks near Milton in Kent, and Colchester in Essex.

Oysters are out of season during the summer-time, the period at which they deposit their spawn, and which commences in the month of April. Each spawn has the appearance of a drop of candle-grease, and adheres to rocks, stones, or other substances on which it happens to be deposited. In some oyster-beds, old shells, pieces of wood, &c. under the denomination of _cultch_, are purposely thrown in to receive the spawn. From these, in the month of May, the oyster-fishers are allowed to separate the spawn for the purpose of transferring it to other beds; but they are required, under certain penalties, to throw the cultch in again, that the beds may be preserved for the future; unless the spawn should be so small as not with safety to be separable from the cultch.

Oysters are considered to be first fit for the table when about a year and half old; and they are among the few animals which in Europe are not merely eaten raw, but even in a living state. Oysters are also eaten cooked in various ways, as sauce to different kinds of fish, and pickled.

The _shells_, like those of other testaceous animals, consist of calcareous earth in combination with animal glue; and, by calcination, they yield a pure kind of quick-lime. In this state they are not only useful as lime, but are also frequently employed by stationers and attorneys as pounce for rubbing upon parchment previously to its being written upon.

276. _The GREAT SCALLOP_ (Pecten maximus, Fig. 78) _is a testaceous animal with a double shell, flat on one side, and convex on the other, with about fourteen rounded ribs, which are longitudinally grooved, and a projection or ear on each side of the hinge._

_The shells, when full grown, are about five inches long, and six inches broad._

By some persons scallops are thought better eating than oysters; and the ancients held them in great esteem. In several parts of France they have the name of "Coquilles de Saint Jacques," from the Catholics who annually visit the shrine of St. James of Compostella, in Spain, placing the shells in their hats as a testimony of this pilgrimage. These shells are also worn by pilgrims to the Holy Land.

277. _The COCKLE_ (Cardium edule, Fig. 80) _is a small and well-known testaceous animal with a double convex shell, somewhat deeper on one side than the other; and marked by twenty-eight depressed ribs, which are streaked or slightly furrowed across._

Cockles are perhaps more generally eaten in England than in any other country of the world: and they are a wholesome and, to many persons, an agreeable food, but, if eaten raw, they are supposed to produce poisonous effects. Cockles are generally found on sea coasts, immersed at the depth of two or three inches in the sand. They are dug up at low water, and the places where they are concealed are known by small, circular, and depressed spots in the sand. Cockles are chiefly in request during the winter months. They are sometimes pickled, and sometimes converted into ketchup.

278. _The GREAT PINNA, or SEA WING_ (Pinna nobilis) _is a testaceous animal with a double or bivalve shell, of nearly triangular shape, open at the broader end, longitudinally striated, the scales channelled and tubular, and somewhat imbricated._

_Its length is sometimes more than fourteen inches, and its greatest breadth six or seven inches._

_These animals are found in great abundance in the Mediterranean; and in the sea near some parts of the coast of America._

From the most remote periods of antiquity the _byssus_, as it has been denominated, or silky threads by which these animals affix their shells to rocks or stones at the bottom of the sea, has been spun and woven into different articles of dress. For this purpose the shells are dragged up by a kind of iron rake with many teeth, each about seven inches long, and three inches asunder; and attached to a handle proportionate to the depth of water in which the shells are found. When the byssus is separated, it is well washed, to cleanse it from impurities. It is then dried in the shade, and straightened with a large comb; the hard part from which it springs is cut off, and the remainder is properly carded. By these different processes it is said that a pound of byssus, as taken from the sea, is reduced to about three ounces. This substance, in its natural colour, which is a brilliant golden brown, is manufactured in Sicily and Calabria (with the aid of a little silk to strengthen it) into stockings, gloves, caps, waistcoats, and other articles of extremely fine texture. All these, however, are to be considered rather as curious than useful; and the manufacture of them is every day declining.

279. _The EDIBLE SNAIL_ (Helix pomatia), _is a shell animal distinguished by its large size, nearly globular shape; being of brownish white colour with usually three reddish horizontal bands, somewhat striated longitudinally; and having a large and rounded aperture with thickened and reflected margin._

_It is sometimes more than two inches in diameter; and is found in woods and hedges in several parts of Europe, and occurs in those of some of the southern counties of England._

By the Romans, towards the close of the republic, when the luxury of the table was carried to the greatest height of absurdity and extravagance, this species of snails were fattened as food, in a kind of stews constructed for the purpose, and were sometimes purchased at enormous prices. The places for feeding them were usually formed under rocks or eminences; and, if these were not otherwise sufficiently moist, water was conveyed into them through pipes bored full of holes like those of a watering pot. They were fattened with bran and the sodden lees of wine.

In France, Germany, and other countries of the Continent, these snails are at this day in great request for the table: and are chiefly in season during winter and the early months of the year. They are boiled in their shells, and then taken out, washed, seasoned, and otherwise cooked according to particular palates. Sometimes they are fried in butter, and sometimes stuffed with force-meat; but, in what manner soever they are dressed, their sliminess always in a great measure remains. They are generally kept in holes dug in the ground, and are fed on refuse vegetables from the gardens.

These snails are frequently used by females in France, as a cosmetic, to preserve the skin of the face soft and delicate.

280. _CORAL_ (Corallium nobilis) _is a hard, stony, branched, and cylindrical substance which is formed, at the bottom of the sea, by certain minute animals called polypes, that issue from the branches, and are white, soft, semi-transparent, and each furnished with eight tentacula or feelers._

_The general appearance of coral is that of a shrub destitute of leaves; and its height is usually from three to four feet._

_It is found in great abundance in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea._

To the inhabitants of Marseilles, Catalonia, and Corsica, the coral fishery is a very important pursuit; and the principal parts of the Mediterranean from which coral is obtained are the coasts of Tunis and Sardinia, and the mouth of the Adriatic Sea. The British government has, within the last few years, concluded a treaty with the Barbary powers, for liberty to fish for coral in their waters. The coral thus obtained is conveyed chiefly to Malta and Sicily, is there wrought into beads and other ornamental forms; and thence is imported into this country. Previously to this arrangement the principal import of coral was from Leghorn.

The mode of obtaining coral is by a very simple machine, consisting of two strong bars of wood or iron tied across each other, with a weight suspended from their centre of union. Each of the arms is loosely surrounded, through its whole length, with twisted hemp; and, at the extremity, there is a small open purse or net. This machine is suspended by a rope, and dragged along those rocks where the coral is most abundant; and such as is broken off either becomes entangled in the hemp, or falls into the nets.

Coral is bought by weight: and its value increases in a certain ratio according to its size. Beads of large size are worth about forty shillings an ounce, whilst small ones do not sell for more than four shillings. Large pieces of coral are sometimes cut into balls, and exported to China, to be worn in the caps of certain persons, as an insignia of office. These, if perfectly sound and of good colour, and upwards of an inch in diameter, have been known to produce, in that market, as much as 300l. to 400l. sterling each. There are extant many beautiful pieces of sculpture in coral; as this substance has in all ages been considered an admirable material on which to exhibit the artist's taste and skill. Probably the finest specimens of sculptured coral that are known are a chess-board and men, in the Tuilleries.

The Chinese have, within the last three or four years, succeeded in cutting coral beads of much smaller dimension than has hitherto been effected by any European artist. These, which are not larger than small pins' heads, are called _seed coral_, and are now imported from China into this country in very considerable quantity for necklaces. Nearly the whole of the coral that is used is of _red_ colour; _white coral_ being considered of little value either as an article of commerce or decoration. There are modes of imitating coral so exactly, that, without a close inspection, it is sometimes impossible to discover the difference betwixt the real and the counterfeit article.

281. _SPONGE_ (Spongia officinalis) _is an animal substance of soft, light, porous, and elastic nature, which is found adhering to rocks at the bottom of the sea in several parts of the Mediterranean, and particularly near the islands of the Grecian Archipelago._

The general uses of sponge, arising from its ready absorption of fluids, and distension by moisture, are well known, and of great importance. It is collected from rocks, in water five or six fathoms deep, chiefly by divers, who, after much practice, become extremely expert in obtaining it. When first taken from the sea, it has a strong and fishy smell, of which it is divested by being washed in clear water. No other preparation than this is requisite previously to its being packed up for exportation and sale. The growth of sponge is so rapid that it is frequently found in perfection on rocks from which, only two years before, it had been entirely cleared. It is principally imported into this country from the Levant.

Sponge is sometimes used by surgeons for the dilating of wounds; and, as it adheres strongly to the mouths of wounded vessels, it is occasionally applied as a styptic to prevent their bleeding. Sponge burnt in a close earthen or iron vessel, and then reduced to powder, is sometimes used as a medicine.

INDEX

TO THE

THIRD VOLUME.

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