ON ACEPHALA. 399 
sea, they are seldom very fine. They are much larger, and 
even of a more delicate taste, when they come from banks 
which are not uncovered, except at the great monthly or 
annual tides. Notwithstanding the great destruction which 
is made of them, the multiplication of mussels is so consider- 
able, that no sensible diminution is observable on the coasts 
above mentioned, and especially none in those which are not 
continually explored. 
On the coasts of the ocean more art and industry are exer- 
cised than on those of the British Channel. There the 
mussels are parked pretty nearly in the same manner as we 
have already described the oysters to be. As it happens 
with the latter genus of mollusca, it appears that the mussels 
are rendered more tender, and the quality of their flesh is im- 
proved, by putting them in places where the saltness of the 
sea-water is tempered by rain or river-water. Pliny has made 
the same observation respecting that species of bivalve which 
he names myas, in saying that it was better in autumn, be- 
cause a greater quantity of rain is then mingled with the sea- 
water. Accordingly, on the coasts of the Atlantic, the fisher- 
men throw into the saline marshes the mussels which they 
have taken in the sea. In the port of Tarentum, in the 
kingdom of Naples, in the month of March, long poles are 
sunk into the mud, on which the spawn of the mussels is 
fixed. In the month of August, a period at which they are 
as large as almonds, the poles are transported to the mouth of 
those streams, which fall into the gulf. In October, they are 
replaced in the port, and it is only in spring that they are 
eaten, although they have not yet arrived at their full growth. 
In the neighbourhood of Rochelle, the mussels fished in the 
sea, are deposited in sorts of ditches or ponds, to which they 
give the name of bouchots *, and in which the salt-water is 
* The literal meaning of the word bouchot, is a fishing-hurdle, or crawl. 
