24 MUSSELS OF CUMBEKLAND KIVER AND TEIBUTARIES. 



THE RIVER BELOW THE FALLS AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 



Not only were there a great number of additional species below the 

 falls, but there was also a change in the character of the shells. Tliis 

 was especially noticeable in Vnio gibhosus, which was no longer a 

 pale-nacred dwarf, but was of normal size and color. The mussels 

 are usually found crowded about the base of the large rocks along 

 the bottom of the river just below the falls. They are easily acces- 

 sible to their enemies, especially during low water, and many of them 

 are killed by muskrats, raccoons, mink, and occasional otter. But 

 the relative number lost in this way is very small when compared 

 with the corresponding loss above the falls. Hinge pearls (baroques) 

 are common in this portion of the river, especially in the pocketbook 

 (Lampsilis ovata), nearly every specimen of which contains a few. 

 The river from Anvil Shoals, 1 mile below the falls, to Burnside was 

 not investigated either by Mr. Boepple in 1910 or by the present 

 party in 1911, but it was reported by a mussel fisherman to be full 

 of excellent button shells. The bottom is much too stony for any 

 kind of gear, however, and it would be necessary to collect the mussels 

 entirely by hand. Pearhng has been conducted actively along this 

 portion of the river, and piles of shells left by the pearlers were 

 frequent along the shore. Indeed it was reported that pearhng had 

 practically cleaned out the river for the first 10 miles above Burnside. 

 There are two tributaries, both from the north, which enter the 

 Cumberland in this space between the falls and Burnside. 



Rock Castle River is the larger of the two and is nearer Burnside. 

 It was examined below the ford at Livingston, Ky., July 1. The 

 shores here were high and rocky and were forested with a mixture of 

 deciduous trees and hemlock. The water was clear, temperature 

 81°, with a maximum depth of a foot and a half. The current was 

 slow (2 miles per hour) and the bottom was very rocky and rough, 

 with only a few bars and patches between the rocks filled with clay. 

 The flora was remarkable and wholly unlike any that we saw else- 

 where. Nuphar grew along the water's edge, MyriopIiyTlum verticil- 

 latum, a broad-leaved Potomogeton, and a small patch of Scirpus 

 americanus grew in I'le shallow water, and there was plenty of water 

 willow, the whole reminding one of a bit of creek in northern Indiana 

 or lUinois. The mussels were excessively abundant in the sand and 

 clay patches here, and in favored locaUties the little Medionidus 

 conradicus covered the entire bottom with the elongate slits, which 

 is all of the mussel that can be seen. 



Nineteen kinds of mussels were found here, but only a very few of 

 them possessed commercial value, and a few miles farther down the 

 river aU the species were widely scattered. This shell bed was 

 markedly unUke any of those in the main river, containing some 



