SEA MUSSELS AND DOGFISH AS FOOD. 245 
From the standpoint of digestibility the mussels take high rank. Persons 
with weak stomachs can eat them without suffering any inconvenience. They 
can be eaten before going to bed and cause no discomfort. One of the men at 
the Woods Hole Laboratory who became very fond of them expressed his 
opinion that the pickled variety was just the thing to eat before retiring. An- 
other man says that while meat does not ordinarily agree with him he can par- 
take freely of mussels and feel perfectly well. Personal experience on the part 
of many testifies that the mussel is more digestible than either the oyster or the 
clam. The reason for this, I believe, is in the character and properties of the 
flesh, which by cooking is made tender and mealy, whereas in the oyster and 
clam it becomes very tough. 
The rate of digestion and amount of nutriment absorbed from the mussel 
by the human system have not yet been determined. The nutritive value from 
a chemical standpoint is much higher than that of the oyster and about the 
same as that of the clam. In ratio of edible portion to refuse, the mussel com- 
pares just as favorably with the oyster and clam. With its light shell it has 
little waste, whereas the oyster with its thick, heavy shell has a high percentage 
of useless parts. From equal quantities of mussels and oysters by weight the 
mussels will yield between two and three times as much meat. 
From the standpoint of economy, mussels rank equally high. They are 
widely distributed and extremely abundant, being found in the bays and estua- 
ries of our eastern coast from North Carolina northward and on our Pacific coast 
from Alaska to San Francisco. They grow in great beds, often acres in extent, on 
the surface of mud or sand at low-tide mark. They also grow in the deeper 
water, where they may be dredged up by the ton. Iam informed that there are 
places in Narragansett Bay where a man could easily obtain 50 bushels a day 
throughout the whole season from May to November, if he had a partner to take 
and dispose of the catch, and it is considered that 35 cents a bushel would be a 
reasonable price to ask for them under these circumstances. The mussels breed 
at a prolific rate, the method of reproduction being similar to that of the oyster, 
so that it is an easy matter to cultivate them by artificial means. 
In Europe the demand for mussels as food and bait is so great that mussel 
culture is practiced on a large scale. Two methods of cultivation are followed, 
one of which may be termed the “‘buchot”’ system or French method, and the other 
the bed system or British method. The French method of cultivation dates back 
to the year 1035. It was invented by an Irishman named Walton, who was the 
sole survivor from a shipwreck in the Bay of Aiguillon near the village of Esnan- 
des. He was kindly received by the French fishermen, who, up to that time, 
had been able to make a very scanty living from the sea. Ina short time he was 
able by his ingenuity to give them a lasting reward by establishing the buchot 
method of mussel culture, which has continued to this day and at the present 
