22 



this investigation a visit v^as made to the Mussel beds 

 at Piel, Duddon and Morecambe, about the middle of 

 September last, the condition of the shell-fish was noted, 

 and samples of material were collected for microscopic 

 inspection at the University College Laboratory, with the 

 following results. A short description of the beds is 

 given first with remarks upon the Mussels, then come 

 lists of the various animals observed either on the beds 

 themselves or in the material collected from them. 



EoosEBECK Scars. 



The Boosebeck Mussel Scars are situated about one 

 and a half miles S.E. from Piel and are practically 

 continuous with the shore, at low-water spring tides only 

 a very narrow and shallow channel separates the inner 

 scar from the outer, at high-water the beds are covered to 

 a depth of several feet. The outer scar, which is evidently 

 the most suitable for the production of this valuable 

 shell-fish, is fully half a mile long and from one hundred 

 to one hundred and fifty yards wide, and lies parallel to 

 the shore, the whole area of this scar at the time the 

 examination was made was covered with fine mud, 

 reaching in some places to a depth of nearly two feet, but 

 this mud, from the information supplied by Mr. Wright 

 the head fishery officer of the Northern District, appears 

 to have only settled down after the Mussels attached 

 themselves to the hard ground, for until the Mussels 

 appeared on the bed the ground was quite hard and free 

 from mud. This experience is the same elsewhere, that 

 Mussels tend to accumulate mud and so raise the level of 

 the bed. 



The outer scar is clearly a much better rearing place 

 for Mussels than the inner one as the present condition of 

 the shell-fish show, for while the Mussels on the outer 



