Cockle

“ It is better to take the line and leave the shell. One form, indeed, that of the cockle, has been in all ages used as the decoration of half domes, which were named conchas from their shell form: and I believe the wrinkled lip of the cockle, so used, to have been the origin, in some parts of Europe at least, of the exuberant foliation of the round arch. The scallop also is a pretty radiant form, and mingles well with other symbols when it is needed. The crab is always as delightful as a grotesque, for here we suppose the beast inside the shell ”

“ You will find that you cannot do it, for the cockle can dig a good deal faster than you can. The fact is that he has a very strong, fleshy organ which we call the “foot,” and with this he can burrow down into the sandy mud so quickly that by the time you have dug to a depth of six inches, he will have gone down to the depth of ten or twelve. ”

“ Their chief pastime is weighing each other, for which purpose they are liberally provided with scales. They can be captured by nets, or rods and lines, or, when they are cockles, they can be captured by the human hand, but, in this latter case, they cannot be tamed, having very little intelligence. The cockle has no scale, and feels the deprivation keenly, hiding himself deep in the sea and seldom venturing forth except at night-time. He is composed of two shells and a soft piece, is chiefly useful for poisoning children and is found at Sandymount, a place where nobody but a cockle would live. ”

“ Wherever the receding tide leaves an area of exposed mud, the common cockle is sure to be found; and hundreds of men, women, and children, may be seen plodding and groping over the stinking surface, with naked feet and bent backs, picking up the shell-fish by thousands, to be boiled and eaten for home consumption, or to be cried through the lanes and alleys of the neighbouring towns by stentorian boys, who vociferate all day long,—“Here’s your fine cockles, here! ”

“ Indeed the species is scarcely known elsewhere; so that it is often designated in books as the Paignton cockle. A right savoury bonne bouche it is, when artistically dressed. Old Dr. Turton, a great authority in his day for Devonshire natural history, especially in matters relating to shells and shell-fish, says that the cottagers about Paignton well know the “red noses,” as they call the great cockles, and search for them at the low spring-tides, when they may be seen lying in the sand with the fringed siphons appearing just above the surface. ”

“ Some of the “Cockles” (Cardiidæ) from warm latitudes are highly coloured and adorned with most beautiful sculpture. Probably the majority are eatable, as the common cockle (Cardium edule) of the British coast. ”

“ Some of these shellfish live feet below the surface of the sand; some, such as the common cockle, only a fraction of an inch. Apparently even cockles do not come to the surface, except to die. Some instinct seems to urge a shellfish, when sick unto death, to save its fellows from infection by leaving the common shelter. Cockles found on the surface are to be avoided as unhealthy, and, unless they die naturally, are soon killed by the carnivorous shellfish. It does not take one of the whelk family long to bore a hole in the centre of the cockle shell. ”

“ The outside of the shell, however, is always white and chalky-looking, and no one who saw the two valves fastened together as they are when the animal is alive would have the least idea how beautiful they really are.
This creature always lives buried in the sandy mud, just as the cockle does. It has a very powerful “foot,” by means of which it burrows, and two long and very slender siphon tubes. ”

“ It lives in sand, and can bury itself so quickly that you would have to use your spade with all your might in order to keep pace with this little shell-fish. Where Cockles have buried themselves you will see spurts of water and sand, showing where they are busy down below in the wet sand.
Besides being so skilful at digging, the Cockle is a first-rate jumper. If left on the beach, it jumps over the sand, towards the sea, in the funniest way. It is strange to see a quiet-looking shell suddenly take to hopping and jumping like an acrobat. ”

“ The foot is very large and powerful; it can be protruded from the anterior aperture between the mantle edges, and its outer part is bent sharply forwards and terminates in a point. By means of this muscular foot the cockle burrows rapidly in the muddy sand of the sea-shore, and it can also when it is not buried perform considerable leaps by suddenly bending the foot. ”

“ Generic character: shell equivalve, convex, ribbed, striated, or grooved, the margin toothed: hinge with two teeth near the beak, and a lateral one on each side: fifty-four species.
"Observe how the beaks of this common Cardium, cockle, turn inwards, and the bosses project. Another striking character is the ribs, that are generally longitudinal, and not concentric or transverse, as in Tellìna, and, as you will see, in Venus. C. aculeatum has small spines on the valves; C. costatum, the ribbed cockle, is one of the finest species of this genus, and C. cardissa is a beautiful shell. ”

“ Then having sent away the multitudes, he came into the house, and his disciples came to him, saying: Expound to us the parable of the cockle of the field.
13:37. Who made answer and said to them: He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man.
13:38. And the field is the world. And the good seed are the children of the kingdom. And the cockle are the children of the wicked one.
13:39. And the enemy that sowed them, is the devil. But the harvest is the end of the world. And the reapers are the angels. ”

“ First scraping the mud and stones, so as to get down to the base of the fish, Mat placed the heavy spike against the shell, which Tim had graphically enough described as a huge cockle; such, indeed, it exactly resembled, but on a gigantic scale, measuring along the jaws over three feet ”

“ The Bessy—for so Ben Tripper had named his bawley, after his favourite sister—was lying on the mud just above Leigh. A fishy smell pervaded the air, for close by were the boiling-sheds, with their vast heaps of white cockle-shells. These were dug [13] by the cocklers either from the sand at the end of the Canvey Island or on the Maplin Sands somewhere off Shoebury.
The large boats often return deeply laden with them. On reaching Leigh the cockles are thrown out in great heaps by the side of the creek, where they are covered at each tide. ”

“ Lepades, aspedi, crabyzi, strabeli, cecibali,
Tethunachia, balani, porphyræ, and oysters with closed shells,
Which are very difficult to open, but very easy to eat;
And mussels, and anaritæ, and ceryces, and sciphydria,
Which are very sweet to eat, but very prickly to touch;
And also the oblong solens. And bring too the black
Cockle, which keeps the cockle-hunter on the stretch.
Then too there are other cockles, and sand-eels,
And periwinkles, unproductive fish,
Which men entitle banishers of men,
But which we gods call white and beautiful. ”

“ Merton, smiling; “for I believe the cockle-shell is common on the sea-beach in every part of the world. Yet something interesting may be told even of this common shell. In the first place it is what is called a bivalve, that is, the shell is in two parts, or valves, like those of the oyster and the scallop, the two parts being united by a hinge, formed by two projecting teeth in the centre, and two side teeth.” ”

“ The cockle-merchants are shaped like cavallies, and about their bigness. They feed on shellfish, having 2 very hard, thick, flat bones in their throat, with which they break in pieces the shells of the fish they swallow. We always find a great many shells in their maws, crushed in pieces. The shellfish are oysters of 3 sorts, namely long-oysters, common oysters, growing upon rocks in great abundance and very flat ”

“ An enemy hath done this. And the servants said to him: Wilt thou that we go and gather it up? And he said: No; lest perhaps gathering up the cockle, you root up the wheat also together with it. Suffer both to grow until the harvest, and in the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers: Gather up first the cockle, and bind it in bundles to burn; but the wheat gather ye into my barn.
What is to be understood by the kingdom of heaven?
The Church of God, or the congregation of the faithful upon earth.
What are we to understand by the good seed and the cockle? ”

“ And if you were to say that these shells are desirous of remaining near to the margin of the sea, and that, as it rose in height, the shells quitted their first home, and followed the increase of the waters up to their highest level; to this I answer, that the cockle is an animal of not more rapid movement than the snail is out of water, or even somewhat slower; because it does not swim, on the contrary it makes a furrow in the sand by means of its sides, and in this furrow it will travel each day from 3 to 4 braccia ”

“ His father was a simple fisherman, who rented the "cockle sands," as they were called,—an extent of something more than a mile, belonging to the parish of Northcotes, and possessed in fee-simple by the principal landholder in the neighbourhood. Having married young, and being early the head of a numerous small family, Tom's father, from the penury of his condition, was constrained to introduce every one of his male children, at least, to the rough and painful labour of gathering cockles on the sea-beach by the time they had reached the tender age of five years. ”

“ The cockle will be found in flower during the months of June, July, and August. Though admirably adapted for service in ornamental art, the only{30} example we can quote occurs in a sixteenth-century MS., a missal, in the British Museum: the treatment is very naturalistic. Drawings of the plant will be found in F. L. vol. ”

“ It is generally about four or five inches in length and half-an-inch in width, and the object which looks so like a key-hole consists of its siphon tubes, the tips of which rest just above the surface of the sand when it is lying at the mouth of its burrow. It digs by means of its strong, fleshy “foot,” just as the cockle does, and its burrow, which goes straight downwards just like a well, is often as much as two feet deep. So it is not a very easy thing to get a razor out of its tunnel. ”

“ Besides those necessary for digesting food, most shellfish have organs equivalent to those of vertebrate animals, such as feet, arms, eyes, head, heart, and tongue. Although bearing the same names, these organs rarely have a similar shape to those of the vertebrates, being necessarily adapted to the different mode of living. The foot of a cockle, shaped like an animal’s tongue, enables it to move slowly from place to place, as well as to burrow in a sandy beach with the comical jerks so well known to observers. ”

“ Cockle, kok′l, n. a troublesome weed among corn, with a purple flower. [A.S. coccel.]
Cockle, kok′l, n. a large and typical genus of bivalve molluscs, having a thick, ribbed, heart-shaped, equal-valved shell.—adj. Cock′led, shelled like a cockle.—ns. Cock′le-hat, a hat bearing a scallop-shell, the badge of a pilgrim; Cock′le-shell, the shell of a cockle: a frail boat.—The cockles of the heart, the heart itself. [Fr. coquille—Gr. kongchylion—kongchē, a cockle.]
Cockle, kok′l, v.i. to pucker into wrinkles or ridges.—v.t. to cause to pucker. ”

“ The cockle is liable to the same suspicion as the oyster of conveying the contamination of typhoid fever where the shores are polluted, but as it is boiled before being eaten it is probably less dangerous. ”

“ THE LILY OF THE ENCHANTED SEA STORY OF NOORNA BIN NOORKA, THE GENIE KARAZ, AND THE PRINCESS OF OOLB THE WILES OF RABESQURAT THE PALACE OF AKLIS THE SONS OF AKLIS THE SWORD OF AKLIS THE LILY OF THE ENCHANTED SEA Now, after the cockle-shell had skimmed calmly awhile, it began to pitch and grew unquiet, and came upon a surging foam, pale, and with scintillating bubbles. The surges increased in volume, and boiled, hissing as with anger, like savage animals. Presently, the cockle-shell rose upon one very lofty swell, and Shibli Bagarag lost hold of it, and lo! ”

“ The tame fowl are cocks, hens, ducks, geese; the 2 last sorts I only saw at the Dutch fort, of the other sort there are not many but among the Portuguese: the woods abound with bees, which make much honey and wax.
ITS FISH. COCKLE MERCHANTS AND OYSTERS. COCKLES AS BIG AS A MAN'S HEAD.
The sea is very well stocked with fish of divers sorts, namely mullet, bass, bream, snook, mackerel, parracoots, garfish, ten-pounders, scuttle-fish, stingrays, whiprays, rasperages, cockle-merchants, or oyster-crackers, cavallies, conger-eels, rock-fish, dog-fish, etc. ”

“ But Icesius, the Erasistratean, says that some cockles are rough, and some royal; and that the rough have a disagreeable juice, and afford but little nourishment, and are easily digested; and that people who are hunting for the purple-fish use them as bait: but of the smooth ones those are best which are the largest, in exact proportion to their size. And Hegesander, in his Memorials, says that the rough cockles are called by the Macedonians coryci, but by the Athenians crii. ”

“ They will keep for months, and when required the slices are lifted out, placed in the centre of a dish with dressed salad round them.
Clams.—Clams, which are a species of cockle, were declared by the great Soyer to be superior to the oyster in flavour. They are very nice if fried, after dipping into beaten egg and breadcrumbs. In America they are stewed. Put into a stewpan with a little water, they are boiled for a few minutes, then seasoned with pepper and salt.
Cockles.—Cockles should be roasted on a tin laid on the top of a stove; they are eaten whilst hot with bread and butter. ”