THE MUSSEL FISHERY. 619 



of which, where they live, is probably the large arctic mussel. "The commou star-fishes feed 

 largely upoii mussels, as well as oysters, and they also have mauy other enemies among the 

 invertebrates, chiefly the whelk, drill, and other boring or crushing shell-fish. A small parasitic 

 crab, Pinnotheres maculatus, lives in their shells, between their gills, in the same manner as the 

 common Pinnotheres ostreum lives in the oyster. The principal enemies of mussels, though, are 

 fishes of various sorts. The scup and other kinds devour their young, and the drum, weakfish, 

 tautog, &c., live largely upon the older ones wherever the beds exist." In some regions, New York 

 Bay particularly, it is difficult to prevent clusters of mussels growing among the planted oysters. 

 This is considered very damaging by the planters, not because the mere presence of the mussels 

 is harmful, but because they attract the drums, skates, and other fishes highly destructive to the 

 valuable oysters. At Stump Shoal, Little Egg Harbor, N. J., however, I was assured that the 

 excess of mussels there would crowd out the oysters by their abundance and more rapid growth, 

 so that planting there was impracticable. 



2. COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE OF MUSSELS. 



Besides being almost indispensable as bait for certain fish, mussels are extensively used as an 

 article of food. They are largely cultivated in all European waters, in so-called " parks." In the 

 North Sea these consist of large numbers of trees, from which the smaller branches only have 

 been cut, and which are planted in the bottom of the sea at such a distance from the shore that 

 their upper portion is partially laid bare at low water. After four or five years they are raised, 

 stripped, and replaced by others. In the bay of Keil, Germany, alone, about one thousand of 

 these trees are annually planted and about 1,000 tons of mussels are brought on the market. Bad 

 seasons occur, however, both with respect to quality and quantity, owing to various causes. In 

 the Adriatic the mussels are raised on ropes extended between poles rammed into the ground. 

 The ropes are raised and stripped once in eighteen months. The mussel beds of Great Britain 

 and western continental Europe are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. For infor- 

 mation in detail in respect to them the reader may consult the lectures by Dr. Philip Carpenter 

 on Mollusca, printed in the Smithsonian Report for 1860, Simmonds's "Commercial Products of 

 the Sea," Phipson's " Utilization of Minute Life," and so forth. 



In America no such cultivation has ever existed, or is likely to be adopted for scores of years to 

 come, since our wealth of the preferable oysters and clams is so great ; still this mollusk is not 

 altogether neglected on the American bill of fare. But before I proceed further let me say that 

 to the aborigines of this continent the mussel has always been of very great importance as food; 

 and in conversation recently with Mr. H. W. Elliott, who has acquired a wide reputation by his 

 reports upon the fur-seal fisheries and the general natural history of Alaska, I learned many inter- 

 esting facts bearing on this point. 



Mr. Elliott said that the mussel of Alaska, which is the same as the Mytilus edulis of Europe 

 and the eastern United States, is found from Saint Lawrence Island, south of Bering Strait, 

 through Bering Sea, along the southern shores of the Aleutian Islands, and in the waters contig- 

 uous to the coast all the way to San Francisco. Mr. Elliott is not sure, but he believes it clings 

 to the small islands known as the Diomedes, and is gathered Ity the Eskimo (in limited quantities) 

 clear around to Point Barrow. It is in great abundance from the head of Cross Sound to the 

 Straits of Fuca, and is especially luxuriant in growth and numbers throughout the whole of the 

 Sitkan Archipelago and in that extensive chain of lesser and greater islands which break the swell 

 of the North Pacific ere it reaches the coast of British Columbia. It is also abundant, but not of 

 so large size, in the whole of Puget Sound and neighborhood. 



