2 MUSSEL CULTURE 



mussel bait for hook-and-line fishing. White-fish 

 fishing produces a vastly more valuable food than 

 oyster culture ; and without an adequate supply 

 of bait, the craft of line-fishing in Scotland is 

 paralysed, and the livelihood of our fishing popula- 

 tion reduced. Poor fishing through lack of suit- 

 able bait, and the consequent destitution among 

 fishers, have long been endured in silence. From 

 time to time an indication of the evil may have 

 come under the notice of a few ; but not till the 

 investigations of the Mussel and Bait Beds Com- 

 mission in 1888 did the full significance of a 

 baitless condition become evident. Since then, 

 several attempts have been made to establish bait 

 fisheries in a regulated form, but still at the 

 present day, the old evil, like a dry-rot, spreads 

 its insidious growth beneath our feet. 



Sixty or seventy years ago the supply of mussel 

 bait, in view of the small number of fishermen 

 and the length of their lines, must have seemed 

 inexhaustible. Now conditions are altered. The 

 large boats worked by more men, at greater dis- 

 tances from the home ports, have increased the 

 possibilities of line-fishing. The larger the crew, 

 the longer does the line become, and the more is 

 a copious supply of mussel bait needed. When 



