On extracting hermit crabs - a very old edition of (I think) the Collins
Guide to the Seashore recommended the technique of holding a lighted match
briefly under the shell, and the hermit crab would (supposedly) rapidly
exit.  But there is obviously some knack to this that I never mastered, as I
singed my fingers a lot whilst the hermit crabs stayed firmly put!

Cheers
Amanda
BBC Natural History Unit
Whiteladies Road, Bristol BS8 2LR, UK
tel     +44  117  9732211 (switchboard) xt 42764
fax     +44  117  9237708
email   [log in to unmask]



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nicky Milner [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2001 3:18 PM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Re: dogwhelks
>
> Dear all
>
> thanks for the answers to the dogwhelk question. I like the idea of
> hermit crabs perhaps being used for bait, especially as, in response
> to Jans e-mail, many of these shells do appear to be fairly worn and
> not fresh. Also most are complete, that is the apex has not been
> broken off to extract the dogwhelk....How would you extract a hermit
> crab? So far we have only had one fragment of mussel so it
> seems unlikely they are being brought in that way.
>
> Re. dying using dogwhelks I would be interested to know how this is
> actually done. I think I had read somewhere that crushed dogwhelks
> had been found on some Irish sites indicating dyeing. Would crushing
> not release the dyestuff anyway? Why does the animal have to be
> extracted?
>
> Ken,
> only 6 topshells have been found so far but we've only really started
> digging the features. There is a huge amount of animal action going
> on and so a lot of the shells and flintwork came up in the topsoil
> and subsoil and so I can't even be positive that all of the shells
> are actually contemporary with the site though they do seem to only
> appear with the lithics and above the underlying archaeology -  we
> will be investigating this further. However, there are some shells
> which have come from stratified deposits. 5 of the topshells are from
> either unstratified deposits or topsoil but there is one from
> occupation debris within what we think is a structure and this has
> been dated by AMS on charred hazlenut to 9th millenium bp. I can't be
> sure about the species,....it might be Gibbula cineraria but I'm not
> sure. Don't know if that helps?
> If you do come across the ethno example of eating dogwhelks I would
> be interested
> Many thanks
> nicky
>
>
> > Date:          Tue, 24 Apr 2001 13:20:22 +0100
> > Reply-to:      [log in to unmask]
> > From:          Tony Legge <[log in to unmask]>
> > Organization:  Birkbeck College
> > Subject:       Re: dogwhelks
> > To:            [log in to unmask]
>
> > This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
> > --------------B9D6A50B7A649B9F0BC15895
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
> > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
> >
> >
> > Dear All,
> >
> > Good point about hermit crabs living in dog whelks -
> > these crabs are a favourite sea angling bait for
> > line fisherman and I have taken lots of good cod on
> > these. Of course, we all know that an interest in
> > animal bones is a thin veneer to conceal a much
> > deeper interest in gastronomy. On other matters of
> > traditional food, I notice that the remainder
> > bookshops in UK have cheap paperback copies of two
> > essential books:
> >
> > Dorothy Hartley "Food in England"  (London,
> > MacDonald and James 1979) - one of my favourite
> > books.
> >
> > Jack Drummond and Anne Wilbraham "The Englishman's
> > food: five centuries of English diet" (London,
> > Pimlico 1991)
> >
> > Another which is an indispensable read is the much
> > more recent Alan Davidson "The Oxford Companion to
> > Food"
> > (Oxford, OUP 1999).
> >
> > I haven't yet seen the new "Cambridge World History
> > of Food," but at #95 I promise to write a favourable
> > review in exchange for a free copy for any journal.
> >
> > Tony Legge
> > --------------B9D6A50B7A649B9F0BC15895
> > Content-Type: text/x-vcard; charset=us-ascii;
> >  name="ubzm003.vcf"
> > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> > Content-Description: Card for Tony Legge
> > Content-Disposition: attachment;
> >  filename="ubzm003.vcf"
> >
> > begin:vcard
> > n:Legge;Anthony
> > x-mozilla-html:TRUE
> > org:University of London,;Birkbeck College
> > version:2.1
> > email;internet:[log in to unmask]
> > title:Professor of Environmental Archaeology
> > adr;quoted-printable:;;26 Russell Square,=0D=0ALondon WC1B 5DQ;;;;
> > x-mozilla-cpt:;-1
> > fn:Anthony Legge
> > end:vcard
> >
> > --------------B9D6A50B7A649B9F0BC15895--
> >
> Dr Nicky Milner
> Sir James Knott Research Fellow
> Dept. of Archaeology
> University of Newcastle
> Newcastle-upon-Tyne
> NE1 7RU
> 0191 222 5754 (office)


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