KENTUCKY RIVER AND ITS MUSSEL RESOURCES. 3 



MIDDLE FORK OF KENTUCKY KIMiR. 



Louisville & Nashville Railroad parallels the stream from its mouth to Athol. 

 No railroad connections farther up stream. 



SOUTH FORK OF KENTUCKY KIVEB. 



No railroad connections on this stream. Nearest railroad shipping point is 

 at Beattyville, at the mouth of the Fork. 



The railroad shipping facilities are poor for the immediate and 

 direct handling of fishery products except on the North Fork and 

 on the main stream from Beattyville to below Irvine, where the 

 Louisville & Nashville Railroad parallels the channel. The railroad 

 shipping points other than here are located at points from 30 to 50 

 miles apart and, for their use in shipping, fresh-water mussels would 

 require previous shipment by packet or towboat. Transportation is 

 further facilitated, however, by the 14 Government locks and dams 

 previously mentioned. These agencies to improve river commerce 

 have made the lower 255 miles of the river from Beattyville to 

 Carrollton navigable for steamboats and other craft at all seasons of 

 the year, except during times of heavy ice. Thus by towing or 

 shipping by small boat or packet the railroad points may be quite 

 readily reached. 



MUSSEL BEDS. 



There are many mussel beds in the upper Kentucky, and, although 

 small in extent when compared with those of the Ohio and Mississippi 

 Kivers, they are generally well stocked and good yielders of com- 

 mercial shells. The greater portion of the bars occupied by mussels 

 range in area from small patches of a few square yards to 2 or 3 

 acres or more. 



The beds may not be situated in the bends, as is often the case in 

 the Ohio River, but in localities having permanent or but slightly 

 shifting bottoms, in which mussels can burrow and maintain a foot- 

 hold. The OTeater number of such grounds, as the riffles or shoals, 

 are found on creeks and small streams or in favorable sections along- 

 shore, usually immediately above the shoals and opposite the chan- 

 nel. The riffles and other mussel-bearing districts are fairly regular 

 in distribution, averaging about two per mile in the most favorable 

 sections. There are four principal classes of shell beds in the head- 

 w^aters. 



(1) The riffles. When occurring on a bar of this class, the mussels 

 are distributed practically all over it, excepting perhaps in the swifter 

 parts and channel. In some places they are found living for some 

 distance below as well as above the main riffles. 



(2) Areas situated above exposed bars and in the shallower chutes, 

 but seldom in the channel. 



(3) Favorable bottoms at the lower end of long pools or at the 

 beginning of shoals, where the current is slow, but uniform through- 

 out. Also directly above and below fords. 



(4) Sections alongshore ; occasionally a portion of a bar extending 

 across the river. On these beds there are usually large bowlders and 

 a shingle or sand-mud bottom. These grounds are generally some 

 distance from the shoals. 



