MUSSEL BAIT — SUPPLY AND DEMAND II 



garded. The outcry so loudly heard at the 

 present day results from the total disregard of the 

 good old maxim, 'Waste not, want not,' and if 

 our fishermen could always get the mussels they 

 require (and if there were as many fishermen), 

 the statement made by the Mussel Commission 

 in 1889 would still hold good, viz., that 'nearly all 

 the 50,000 fishermen of Scotland use mussels as 

 their bait during some part of the year ; some do 

 so during the whole year ; the majority for all 

 that portion of the year when they are not en- 

 gaged at the herring fishing.' 



Several attempts have been made to manu- 

 facture an artificial bait which will be cheap, and 

 sufficiently effective to supply the much-felt need. 

 Valuable information has been gained as to the 

 particular senses brought into play by different 

 fishes in hunting for their food,^ but the chemical 

 experiments- based on this knowledge, though 

 productive of many attractive substances, have 

 failed, so far, to yield a suitable medium by means 

 of which to convey the essences. Natural baits 

 preserved by freezing, or in boracic acid, are used 

 with some success in a few localities, but success 



1 Baitson, yourn. Mar. Biol. Assoc, vol. i. No. 3. 



2 Hughes, ibid. vol. ii. Nos. 2 and 3, pp. 91 and 220. 



