several of them take up oysters from the beach, lay them on a stone, and
beat them with another till they demolished the shells. Wafer observed
the monkeys in the island of Gorgonia to proceed in a similar manner;
and those of the Cape of Good Hope, if we are to credit La Loubere,
perpetually amuse themselves by transporting shells from the shore to
the tops of mountains, with the intention undoubtedly of devouring them
at leisure. Even the fox, when pressed by hunger, will deign to eat
muscles and other bivalves; and the racoon, whose fur is esteemed by
hatters next in value to that of the beaver, when near the shore lives
much on them, more particularly on oysters. We are told that it will
watch the opening of the shells, dexterously put in its paw, and tear
out the contents. Not, however, without danger, for sometimes, we are
assured, by a sudden closure, the oyster will catch the thief, and
detain him until he is drowned by the return of the tide. The story,
I regret to say, appears somewhat apocryphal.

These are amusing facts; the following, to the epicure at least, may
be equally interesting. In some parts of England it is a prevalent and
probably a correct opinion, that the shelled-snails contribute much
to the fattening of their sheep. On the hill above Whitsand Bay in
Cornwall, and in the south of Devonshire, the _Bùlimus acùtus_ and
the _Hèlix virgàta_, which are found there in vast profusion, are
considered to have this good effect; and it is indeed impossible that
the sheep can browse on the short grass of the places just mentioned,
without devouring a prodigious quantity of them, especially in the
night, or after rain, when the Bùlimi and Hèlices ascend the stunted
blades. "The sweetest mutton," says Borlase, "is reckoned to be that
of the smallest sheep, which feed on the commons where the sands are
scarce covered with the green sod, and the grass exceedingly short; such
are the towens or sand hillocks in Piran Sand, Gwythien, Philac, and