62 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSCA. 



The British method of renring mussels differs from 

 that of the French. By the latter, endeavours are made 

 to intercept the spat, as we have already seen, and by 

 the former, the young mussels are removed from the 

 grounds where they have been deposited, as soon as 

 they are sufficiently large, to positions up estuaries, at 

 some distance from the sea, where they are uncovered 

 at low-water. They grow and fatten by the admixture 

 of the fresh- water with the salt-water.* 



The Billingsgate market is chiefly supplied with 

 mussels from Holland, the east coast of England, Corn- 

 wall, 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, Decem- 

 ber 24, 1863, it was stated, that the price of these 

 shellfish taken in the estuary at Lympstone, was 

 8s. per sack of ten pecks, but that the supply was de- 

 creasing. 



Mussel culture is now successfully carried on, on the 

 Boston Deep beds. Mr. Frank Buckland stated, in his 

 examination before the Select Committee on Oyster 

 Fisheries, in 1876, that, since the Lynn and Boston cor- 

 porations have taken the beds under their protection, 

 the mussels have increased immensely. The average 

 value of these shellfish in the Lynn Deep alone, is about 

 £3400 a year. There are 16 bags, or 32 bushels, in a 

 ton of mussels, and each ton is worth about £1. 



* ' Fish and Fisheries,' edited by David Herbert, M.A. ' Best Means 

 of Increasing Mussels,' &c., by J. C. Wilcocks. 



