22 



the Old Law — a house which overlooks the Scaup. Other help 

 would be obtainable at Holy Island as and when required. 



" At present the Hoh^ Island fishermen pay a small sum 

 annually for leave to use the mussels to the Earl of Tankerviile. 

 These rents ought to be taken over, and arrangements made with 

 the fishermen for the supplj" on mutually convenient terms, on the 

 understandmg also that the fishermen will help in looking after 

 the beds. It would be necessarj^ also to regulate the gathering 

 of the other shellfish by the fishermen, so that the mussel scaup 

 or that portion of it under mussels would not be interfered with. 



" It might be necessary and desirable to get a local farmer 

 to stir up the ground on a part of the Scaup with a grubber so as 

 to remove the sand and prepare a better bed for the transplanted 

 mussels. 



" We hope that the preliminaries will be settled in time to 

 make a start this season." 



From experiments which have been made in the quiet con- 

 ditions of tanks it has been demonstrated that the larvae of the 

 mussels become planktonic in some twelve to twenty hours after 

 the fertihzation of the egg. It has also been shown by such 

 experiments, as those by Scott, that the larvae are planktonic 

 for about four days. An experiment of this kind at Cullercoats 

 confirmed this conclusion, for the larvae remained planktonic 

 for four days, and the pelagic state was retained in many cases 

 up to eight days. Practically the whole of the area at Holy Island 

 is uncovered by the ebb tide, the water being carried mainly through 

 the narrov/ channel between the Beacons and Holy Island into 

 Skate Roads, where it joins the ebb current leading outwards in 

 the direction of Emmanuel Head. Thus after an ebb tide, the 

 larvae, which have become free when the slake is covered with 

 water, will be carried away from the slake, onty a small proportion 

 remaining in the channel and harbour. During a free period of 

 say four days even they will have time to be transported some 

 distance to the south. The mussel, however, is widely spread 

 round our coasts, and in certain regions as at the mouths of rivers 

 and such flats as we are now considering it occurs in large numbers. 

 As the result of spawning which takes place from say April to 

 July, and may be continued into the autumn, mj^riads of larvae 

 arc Hberated in coastal waters. In most places then it may be 



