“Wall-fish.”
The term “wall-fish” will be unknown to many of our readers. It is applied by dealers in Covent Garden and other markets to the common garden snail (Helix aspersa). This mollusc is held in especial esteem by the poor in Bristol, and in consequence is now very scarce in the environs of that city. There are men who make a livelihood during the winter by collecting these snails from their hybernating places. In November, 1896, the writer met a “wall-fish” collector in a remote village in Somerset, and had an interesting conversation with him. He was collecting for a Bristol dealer, his home being in Kent, where he worked as a carpenter in summer and autumn. For many winters past he had regularly visited Somerset to collect snails. According to his experience these snails seldom hybernate in banks facing east or north, but usually seek winter quarters in those facing south-west.
They generally congregate in some numbers, and appear to have a predilection for certain spots. From an hybernaculum near the village he had that morning taken a gallon and a half of them, but this was very unusual; his “takings” as a rule did not exceed a gallon per day.
Ash stumps, or crannies at the base of ash-trees, are very favourite haunts. They seldom hybernate under oaks, and although old walls are favourite places in summer, whence they probably owe their name of “wall-fish,” they seldom hybernate in them.
Our “wall fisherman” carried an iron rod about 2 feet long, slightly crooked at one end for probing likely nooks and corners. H. aspersa is quite the most nearly domesticated of the snail tribe. It loves the haunts of man, and is seldom found in any numbers in places remote from villages and roadsides.
A conchologist should never miss an opportunity of examining the bag of a wall-fish collector. Occasionally rare varieties—scalariforme for instance—may be secured in this way. I asked my friend to allow me to inspect his “catch,” and he very obligingly turned out the contents of his creel. I found nothing better than three or four examples of the variety exalbida, which is greenish-white. It is, however, widely distributed in the southern counties. It is stated by Forbes and Hanley (“Hist. Brit. Moll.,” vol. iv., p. 46), that “owing to its being an article of food in some countries, or else a supposed remedy for pulmonary affections, H. aspersa has been transported and distributed by the agency of man to all parts of the world. It is especially abundant in the neighbourhood of gardens.” In 1840, according to Turton, H. aspersa was sold in Covent Garden and elsewhere as a cure for diseases of the chest, and was sent to the United States as a delicacy. “The glassmen at Newcastle once a year have a snail feast; they generally collect the snails themselves in the fields and hedges the Sunday before the feast day.” This feast is, we believe, now given up.
Dormant Life.—The conditions under which vital activity may become dormant obtained a curious illustration in the instance of a beetle which was taken alive out of the wood of a desk which had been in the office of the London Guildhall for twenty years. The wood was deal from the Baltic, the beetle was the Buprestis splendens. It was alive and in beautiful colour. The observation was confirmed by Sir Joseph Banks. The description is given by Mr. Thos. Wrenham in the tenth volume of Transactions of Linnæan Society, 1810.