84 



which are quite unfavourable to growth. On the Northumberland 

 coast the more or less favourable situations are Berwick, Holy 

 Island (Snook and Fenham), Budle, Amble, Blyth and Tynemouth. 

 Small stunted mussels occur often in large numbers near Emmanuel 

 Head, Holy Island, at Bamborough, Wideopen (Fames), both sides 

 of North Sunderland harbour, Beadnell, Craster, Howick, Boulmer, 

 Alnmouth, Cresswell, Newbiggin and Cullercoats. The presence 

 of these all along the coast shows to what an extent mussel larvse 

 are distributed by the currents, and that the spat of a particular 

 mussel bed may be carried far away from its place of origin. Con- 

 sidering the fact that the larvae may take a week or a fortnight to 

 settle, and the completeness with which the drainage of a mussel 

 scaup may remove the water at each tide the problem of the origin 

 and distribution of the spat is an important one, which involves 

 not mereh^ the area in question, but another, as on the east coast, 

 to the north of it. St. Andretv's mussels may depend on the Tay, 

 Fenham mussels on the Tweed. 



It is a Httle more difficult to understand the apparent or real 

 rapid growth of the mussels gathered from the chains of coastal 

 buoys. These, we are led to understand, are renewed every year, 

 and at every time of replacement are found to be covered with. 

 large bait mussels of good quahty. This points either to a marvel- 

 lously rapid growth or to a migration, wherever from, which it is 

 difficult to explain. 



The Budle Bay mussel beds have now been leased to the 

 fishermen of Sea Houses. We have recommended them to utihze 

 the oyster pond as a spatting area, and if they do this the results 

 will have an important bearing on the question of mussel culture. 



