Volume 2

Curiosities of natural history / by Francis T. Buckland.

  • Buckland, Francis T. (Francis Trevelyan), 1826-1880.
Date:
1882-1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Curiosities of natural history / by Francis T. Buckland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    WHELK AND SKELETON COD. liibited as “ the father, mother, and five children,” and they got him “ a good dinner and a skin-full 0f beer.” A lady at Dover, not long since, bought two very curious fish; they' were, the man told her, male and female. They proved to be the upper and lower jaw of a species of skate, nicely cleaned and dried. Cod-fish come in within three or four miles of the shore in September, and stay till April. The men look out anxiously for them to be caught in the trawl-nets, as this gives notice of their arrival. The animal from the whelk-shell is the best bait for cod ; a salted sprat is also used. The whelks are caught by simply letting down open-mouthed baskets, with odds.and ends offish for bait, among the rocks. The whelks, who are hor- ribly carnivorous, will eat anything high-flavoured, and soon crowd into the baskets; they are then easily hauled up and carried home. I have heard terriblo stories of these whelks devouring human bodies found floating out at sea from wrecks—one in particular, where the flesh of the face and hands of a sailor had been quite eaten off, besides other instances too hor- rible to repeat. I always shudder when I see people eating whelks in the London street stalls. Two or three cods were caught in August last, miserable looking things, with enormous heads; they call them “ skeleton cods ”—a famous name for them, as they look like ghosts of a good Dogger-bank fish, as