107 



tlie Baicliff and Bardsea beds the average cockle picked 

 out of the fisherman's basket shows, at most, only three 

 of the lines of growth on the shell, which are referred to 

 at the beginning of this Memoir; in the Southern Division, 

 on the Cheshire coast, four or five are generally present in 

 the average specimen. Growth is most rapid in the sum- 

 mer months ; on the Baicliff beds, according to the fisher- 

 men, the cockles in part of a bed, which are under gauge 

 size in April, may be of legal size in June or July ; in that 

 period the shell has increased in girth by as much as half 

 an inch. 



The legal size is convenient and most probably eminently 

 useful. On the principle that a marine food animal ought 

 to be allowed the chance of spawning at least once before 

 it is captured for the market, the Bye-law must be regarded 

 as operating for the preservation of the cockle fishery. 

 The present condition of the Crosby and Formby cockle 

 beds is a case in point ; here the difference in the output 

 of the beds (180 cwts. daily in the winter of 1897 — 8, and 

 12j cwts. weekly during the year 1898 — 9) points to the 

 over-fishing of the beds, which was, of necessity, followed 

 by their temporary exhaustion. But since the cockles 

 then became, on the average, so small as to fall under the 

 gauge size, the fishing of the beds practically stopped for 

 a time. During this period spawning of the remain- 

 ing cockles went on, the beds being, to a large extent, 

 undisturbed, and it is to be expected, from their present 

 condition, that the fishing will again become abundant. 



No close time, as in the case of the common mussel, is 

 enforced. It will be seen from a consideration of the 

 monthly output of the Ribble beds, exhibited in Table I., 

 that natural causes lead to the suspension (to a great 

 extent) of the fishing during the summer months. A 

 certain amount of spawning goes on during May, June, 



