first-named word means "red leaf," or "membrane." It is common all round our coast, and is a pretty plant for an aquarium.

66 We e are not aware," say Messrs. Johnstone and Croall, "that it is eaten anywhere in Scotland at the present day as an article of food, although it is said to have been so at one period, and it is still much eaten as a relish by all the inhabitants that live near the coast. It is always, we believe, eaten in the raw state; but we remember seeing, when a boy, some people giving it a slight scorching or roasting by rolling it round a heated poker, after which it had a very peculiar flavour, which to most persons, as well as to us, was very disagreeable. By this process the red colour was changed to green. Those specimens which are covered by parasites, such as Calithamnia and Ectocarpus, are generally most in request; and many persons consider it no disparagement that a few of the smaller crustacea (Idotea) and minute shellfish (Rissoa and young Mytilus) form a part of the delicate morsel. When sold in the markets, or hawked through the towns or rural districts, as it often is during the summer months, the young stems of Laminaria digitata (tang or tangle) are generally mixed up with it; and also a sprinkling of pepper dulse (Laurencia pinnatifida)."*

Now, May, take a bite; there are no parasites on this bit, and you will be able to report on its character as food. "No, thank you, papa," said May; "it is very pretty, but the smell is not very inviting."

"Nature Printed Sea-weeds," ii. p. 12.

Here is a tuft of a zoophyte called "Lobster'shorn," growing on a stone imbedded in the sand; you see each branch is jointed like the antennæ of a lobster. A row of small cups extends at regular intervals down the inside; these are the houses of the polyps. Here is Plumularia falcata, a very elegant little zoophyte, and here is Campanularia verticellata. Let us put them in one of our small boxes for examination under the microscope. What wonderful

variety there is in nature!

New buds and bulbs the living fabric shoots
On lengthening branches and protruding roots;
Or, on the father's side, from bursting glands,
Th' adhering young its nascent form expands;
In branching lines the parent trunk adorns,
And parts, ere long, like plumage, hairs or horns.

WALK V.

E will take the train and visit Rhos-fynach once more, and after seeing the fun at the Weir, we will turn over the stones and examine the rocks at low tide; we shall no doubt meet with many interesting specimens of animals, and I dare say get a few pretty sea-weeds from the rock pools. On the sands, we found a large univalve shell; there was, however, no animal inside it; the shell was that of a whelk (Buccinum undatum). Put it to your ear, Willy, and listen to the murmurings. "It seems to make a curious noise, papa," Yes, this shell is “the roaring buckie" of Scotch children. Wordsworth alludes to this idea in the following lines

I have seen

A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract
Of inland ground, applying to his ear
The convolutions of a smooth-lipp'd shell;

To which, in silence hushed, his very soul

Listen'd intensely, and his countenance soon
Brightened with joy : for murmurings from within
Were heard, sonorous cadences, whereby,

To his belief, the monitor express'd
Mysterious unions with its native sea.

The whelk, of which there are many varieties, is a common mollusc in all parts of the British seas.

The

animal is very voracious; it has a yellowish body streaked with black, and a long powerful proboscis, within which is a muscular sheath that contains a very curiously-formed tongue. This tongue is a beautiful microscopic object, and when we get home again, I The creature will show you its form and structure. burrows in the sand. I have often taken specimens out dredging. Mr. Gwyn Jeffrey's says he has seen between

thirty and forty shells of this mollusc taken from the stomach of a single cod. "Do any people eat whelks as they eat cockles and periwinkles?" asked Jack. I believe vast numbers are eaten in London, where you may often see them exposed for sale. According to Mr. Mayhew, as many as four million, nine hundred and fifty thousand whelks are sold in the streets of London every year. They have from very early

times been eaten in this country; and when the Romans were in England they acquired a taste for whelks. "How do you know that, papa ?" said May. Because whelk-shells have been found mixed with oyster-shells at Richborough, in Kent, an old Roman station. We know that the old Romans were very fond of shell-fish. Snails were dainty morsels; and do you know they used to eat sea-urchins and seaanemones? Even bishops and archbishops used to eat whelks, for in 1504, when William Warham was made Archbishop of Canterbury, eight thousand whelks were provided for the feast at five shillings a thousand. I should like to see archbishops now-adays eating whelks. In the shell-fish market at Billingsgate, the present species goes by the name of the "white," or common whelk, in contradistinction to the Fusus antiquus, which is there called the "red," or "almond" whelk; they are brought chiefly from Whitstable, Ramsgate, Margate, Grimsby, and Harwich.*

Wilks-the word is spelt in different ways-must be sold during the same day they are received, that is, the day after they are caught. If the supply is greater than the demand, they are boiled, in which state they keep good for several days. "Evidence was given before a Select Committee of the House of Commons in the Session of 1866, on the Whitstable Oyster-Fishery Bill, that the whelk-fishery on a sandy flat in that bay yielded £12,000 a year-part of the produce being disposed of in the London market for * Jeffrey's "British Conchology,” iv. p. 290.