No, a story from your favorite supermarket check-out rack tabloid did not end up by a computer accident on these pages. I found Noah's Ark in Murrells Inlet last weekend. Nothing like reports of a divine visitation to upstate New York nor the sentiments of the hymn sung by the boys in the reformatory in the film "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" asking whether "those (holy) feet in ancient time walked on England's sunny shore." Not even close. I did, however, eat Noah's Ark.

Tastes great with a Michelob.

"Pepitona" is the more common general name for these hard shell clams, about the size of a silver dollar, with horizontal ribs on the outside. "Noah's Arc" is the unscientific name of our species, like "Little Necks" to Atlantic Hard-shells. I had asked fisheries expert and gourmand first class Jim Godfrey about them He calls them pepper clams and his description is perfect, as I found out when I got up enough courage to steam some along with the Cherrystones (also Atlantic Hard-shell clams) that I had harvested at low tide between fishing for blues and trout in the creek.

The wind was blowing from the southwest at small craft warning levels and we were just about at the new moon which meant that the high tide would be very high and that the bottom would drop out of the inlet on the low tide, the moon and sun being lined up to exert their force together for a super low spring tide. Bluefish were hitting grubs in the creek and that was the only place I could fish. Alas, no flounder or trout hit.

I harvested a five-gallon pail of clams, mostly the larger Cherrystones for steamed clams, clams on the half shell, or chowder. (Dr. Paul Rice did some stir fry with my abundant harvest.) But I picked up some four-dozen of the pepper clams and invited Dr. Umberto Echo, the noted Conway gourmet, to sample them with me. (Despite Godfrey's endorsement, I was a bit leery about the new delicacy. But I figured that if both of us didn't survive the new delicacy, our respective widows might get a discount for a combined service from Mr. Goldfinch.)

 The pepitonas were delicious, thank you. Steamed, they taste sweet in the front of the mouth, with a pepper taste as they glide to lower taste buds. Dr. Echo, who is usually very demanding about food, had three helpings. Another colleague of mine told me that these clams were a common delicacy in Egypt where he had taught in recent years.

The pepitona or "ark shell" clam is common to the Mediterranean and the northern coast of South America. The "Noah's Ark" and is found from Cape Hatteras to the West Indies, as well as on the Pacific Coast and in Mediterranean waters. Venezuelans annually consume 5,000 tons of this delicacy according to McClane's useful "Fish Cookery," my bible on the subject.

The names for our Murrells Inlet "Noah's Ark" clam are "Arche de Noe" in French," "Arca di Noe" in Italian, and "Arca de Noe" in Spanish. Interestingly, they are called "Papak" in Yugoslavia, which may or may not explain Belgrade's problems with NATO.

So even if I did eat Noah's Ark, it's not equivalent to Bedouins burning the Dead Sea Scrolls to boil water for their tea. As for finding the pepper clams, just look on the top of shells and mud at the super low tide line.

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