CHAPTER XIV
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The Shellsh Industry
SECOND only in importance to the true sh as 3. source
of food from the sea come the shellsh. T0 a scientist
shellsh signies Molluscs, such as oysters,
scallops,
whelks and the like ; but as used in commerce
the term also
includes members
of the _crab and lobster family, or
Crustacearis, and it is in this inclus'ivesense that it is here
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employed.
Great Britain, owing to the great
size of the sheries, the shellsh industry is of com—
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parativelÿ small importance, this is by no means the case
in many other maritime countries, while in this country
there is a great eld for development especially in connection
With the molluscan shellsh which, With the exception of
the highly esteem'ed oyster and scallop, ate unjustiably‘
despised by a large section of the population.
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j MOLLUSCS
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Shellsh have been consumed byman from time im—
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memorial as is shown by the presence of shell heaps, often
of great dimensions, near
the dwellings of prehistoric man,
and so arranged that it is almost certain they are the work"
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of man and not 'of nature, while animal boues and rude
weapons
have oCcatsionally
been found in them.
On an
island off the coast of ÇalifOmia a primitive race of people
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who lived=large1y
to have survived
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until the, nineteenth
Oysters have long been
iegarded as a delicacy, to suchan extent“ by the Romans
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293
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