48 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 



sels from Holland, the east coast of England, Cornwall, 

 and Devonshire, in August and September, though 

 smaller quantities are received from other parts of our 

 coasts, besides those above mentioned. About ten or 

 twenty tons weight arrive at a time, though, of course, 

 the quantity varies according to the season, and they are 

 sold at Is. a measure. In the evidence given before the 

 Fisheries Commission, at Exeter, December 24, 1863, 

 it was stated, that the price of these shell-fish taken in 

 the estuary at Lympstone was 8s. per sack of ten pecks, 

 but that the supply was decreasing. 



Dr. Knapp informed Messrs. Forbes and Hanley 

 that the quantity of mussels consumed in Edinburgh 

 and Leith is about 10 bushels per week, "say for forty 

 weeks in the year, in all 400 bushels annually. Each 

 bushel of mussels, when freed and shelled from all re- 

 fuse, will probably contain from 3 to 4 pints of the ani- 

 mals, or about 900 to 1000, according to their size. 

 Taking the latter number, there will be consumed, in 

 Edinburgh and Leith, about 400,000 mussels. This is a 

 mere trifle compared to the enormous number used as 

 bait for all sorts of fish, especially haddocks, cod, ling, 

 halibut, plaice, skate, etc. ; and at Newhaven, the total 

 consumption of mussels for bait may be reckoned at 

 4,320,000 annually. There are nearly as many used at 

 Musselburgh, Fisherrow, etc., and other places on the 

 Frith of Forth, and we may calculate that 30,000,000 

 or 40,000,000 of mussels are used for bait alone by the 

 fishermen of that district each year."* 



The mussel has the power of attaching itself by means 

 of its " byssus" to rocks and stones ; and we read that 

 the bridge at Bideford, in Devonshire, cannot be kept 

 * Forbes and Hanley, Brit. Mollusca, vol. ii. pp. 174, 175. 



