256 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
stroyed, i. e., turned into fish scrap, at these two factories during the time they were 
running. 
Mr. WuItMAN. It might be of interest for you to know that the steam trawler 
that was brought over from England to operate on our Nova Scotia coast in one hour 
recently filled her trawl net so full with dogfish that it parted the lines, and carried the 
net away. The captain estimated more than 15 tons of dogfish in the net. He says 
that he usually avoids the places where dogfish are. He knows them by the oil on 
the surface of the water. But this time the net was cast in the wrong place and in a few 
minutes it had filled so full that the weight carried the net away. 
DoctorGiy. I think that Doctor Field of Woods Hole labors under some misappre- 
hension as to the clam. He remarked, if I understood him rightly, that the clam was 
not esteemed in England. They have no clams, in our sense of the word, in England. 
The family of venerids is represented by only two small species of no economic value, 
their place being taken economically by the cockles or cardiids. By a curious coinci- 
dence, the name ‘‘clam”’ is in very little use in England, and what they call a clam is 
not like our hard clam at all. It is a very interesting fact that we derive the name clam 
from England, but we apply it in a very different way from what it is applied in England. 
Of course, I can not go into the full history. Suffice it to say that the word ‘“‘clam”’ in 
England is mostly applied to the piddock—that is, to a species of the family of pholadids. 
Dr. Irvine A. FIELD. In reply to Doctor Gill’s criticism, I want to say that it is 
not from personal experience that I speak about the clam of Europe; that is a quotation 
from Ganong’s Economic Molluska of Acadia, in which he states that the soft-shell clam 
occurs in Europe, but is not used. He calls it the soft-shell clam. 
In regard to the poison mussel: There are cases of mussel poisoning on record. 
There are also cases of poisoning from clams, from lobsters, from crabs, and other animals 
in that group. I wish to state, however, that there are no cases on record of poison 
from mussels that were collected from what might be called pure water, in good circu- 
lation. ‘The most notable cases of mussel poisoning on record are those which occurred 
at Wilhelmshaven, Germany, in the early eighties, and in these cases it was found that 
the mussels came from stagnant water. These mussels, which were very poisonous, 
when placed in free-circulating water became harmless in about two weeks. On the 
other hand good mussels placed in the impure water became poisonous. We may say, 
therefore, that poisonous mussels come from poisonous water. ‘These results were 
obtained by Virchow and also by Wolff in 1886. 
Doctor GiLL. You have found persons pretty generally prejudiced against mussels? 
Dr. Irvine A. Freip. Yes; for that reason. 
Then as to the season for mussels, I wish to say again that I was right when I said 
that the mussel is in season when the oyster is out of season, for the mussel is the 
very best to eat during the breeding season, or just prior to the breeding season. After 
the breeding season the mantles become very thin and there is very little meat to the 
mussel at all. 
I stated in my paper that they breed at a prolific rate. I have not been able to 
locate the center of the reproductive gland. In fact the whole animal is a reproductive 
gland at the height of the breeding season. If you take a mussel in June or July you 
will find the reproductive organs covering the floor of the body, filling the mantles full 
and extending over the liver, so that the whole mussel appears to be a great reproductive 
gland. Eggs, of course, are very nutritious, and it is at this period we find the mussel! 
containing about 18 percent of protein. In September and October, or the latter part of 
August, September and October, when the sexual products are liberated, mussels lose 
probably two-thirds or three-fourths of their weight, become very thin and shrivel up, 
so that when cooked they are no larger than the end of one’s little finger. 
Now, coming to the dogfish, I think it was Mr. Libby who said there was trouble in 
dry-salting northern dogfish, which at first are white and nice but later become brownish 
