MUSSEL BEDS OF SCOTLAND 35 



Line fishermen in this section of the Clyde estuary 

 are few in number, their demands are easily 

 supplied, and the beds are left to take care of 

 themselves. Formerly, Holy Loch was, to the 

 writer's knowledge, occasionally visited by boats 

 taking cargoes of mussels, as described below in the 

 case of the Gare Loch, but no trade in mussels for 

 bait is systematically attempted from any but the 

 Greenock beds, which, with one or two of the beds 

 on the south or lowland side of the firth, are 

 mentioned separately. The Gare Loch beds suffi- 

 ciently represent the beds on the north side, where 

 each loch, having a stream with a greater or less 

 delta and expanse of alluvial deposit, forms at its 

 upper end a natural mussel bed. In 1869 an 

 attempt was made in Holy Loch to establish an 

 oyster bed. After considerable misfortune, the 

 effort was abandoned ; but a private right of 

 oyster fishery was granted at that time to James 

 Hunter, Esq. of Hafton. 



The Gare Loch Beds (Clyde). — There are 

 two beds in this locality, one at the head of the 

 loch, and another at the 'jabble,' where the 

 entrance to the loch is narrowed by a gravel spit 

 running out from the Row shore. The latter is 

 all but exhausted, but the former, although it has 



