American Fisheries Society 165 



New York City, I believe, has the honor for developing 

 the first market for fresh and pickled mussels in this 

 country. A very limited call for fresh mussels is beginning 

 to be heard at several points along the coast. All that is 

 lacking to start a market of national proportions is a packer 

 enterprising enough to put a few canned samples in the 

 hands of retail merchants and of proprietors of hotels and 

 restaurants. The product will speak for itself and its fame 

 as a delicious food is bound to spread rapidly. There is an 

 opportunity here which the packer cannot afford to over- 

 look. It is extravagance and waste to allow this vast sup- 

 ply of food to go unutilized. 



DISCUSSION 



President : That is a very able paper both from a scientific and a 

 practical standpoint. 



Mr. L. L. Dyche, Lawrence, Kans. : Is there the same species on 

 the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts? 



Professor Field : Yes, sir. 



Mr. Dyche: I have found enormous quantities of them on our ovirn 

 coast from Labrador north to Cape Sabin, enormous quantities of them 

 also on the Greenland Coast and on the west coast. They constitute 

 the sole food of the walrus. The walrus crushes and spits out the shell 

 and swallows the mussel. I have killed 24 to 30 walruses and have 

 found in the stomach on occasions a ball containing two quarts of 

 pieces of shell and other material from the sea mussels. Whales eat 

 squid, and seals eat squid and small fish, but the only thing that the 

 walrus feeds on in the north is the sea mussel. The eider ducks eat 

 the small ones, about an inch in length, and you will find the ducks 

 oftentimes full of these mussels clear to the throat; I do not believe 

 I would be exaggerating if I should say there was a pint in each. 

 Turkeys killed in the Oklahoma country have been found full to the 

 throat of acorns, and the eider duck will be full to the throat of 

 small mussels. 



Mr. W. H. Boardman, Central Falls, R. I. : For the last thirty years 

 mussels have been considered quite a choice article of food in Rhode 

 Island, and, I think, are held superior to other shellfish. They are 

 especially preferred by the English. For the last 35 years there 

 has been a market for them. In Rhode Island waters the oyster men 

 get rid of them in the easiest manner possible, but the market is 

 growing constantly. They are a nice shellfish if you know how to 

 prepare them. 



Mr. William A. Bryan, Honolulu : Our coral reefs about the 

 Hawaiian Islands are paved with these mussels, and curious things 

 they are. While the Hawaiians are frequently hard up to get sufficient 



