66 



Ont-skear; and (2) the deep water skears that seldom or 

 never dry at Ioav water even of a very high, spring tide, 

 where the mussels have to be fished for with the " long 

 craam " : — Little Skears, Einghole, Seldom Seen, Old 

 Gunnel,. Whelk Hill, Cockup, Great Gunnel, Little 

 Gunnel, Bankside, -Tacky John, Low Shear, Patrick 

 Skear. 



The depths of water on the skears at low water of a 

 sixteen feet tide is as follows : ^ — 



Little Skears ... 4 to 6 ft. i N. side of Gunnels 10 to 14 ft. 

 Ringhole ... 10 to 20 ft. { Great Gunnel ... 5 to 15 ft. 



Reap Skear ... 4 to 10 ft. i Little Gunnel. . . 5 to 10 ft. 

 Seldom Seen ... 4 to 10 ft. I Bank Side ... 6 to 20 ft. 

 Old Gunnel ... 4 to 10 ft. .Tacky John ... 18 to 25 ft. 

 Low Skears ... 20 to :^)0 ft. 



History of thp: Transplanting. 



When the Lancashire Sea Fisheries Committee Avas 

 established about the end of 1891, th6 wholesale removal 

 of mussels, for purposes other than food or bait, was put 

 an end to. One of the Bye-laws prohibited fishing for 

 mussels except by hand : or with a rake not exceeding 

 three feet in width, and used only from a boat when the 

 bed was covered with at least four feet of water. Another 

 Bye-law prohibited the removal of any mussels less than 

 two and a quarter inches in length. These Bye-laws 

 worked well for some j-ears, and would have remained 

 satisfactory for an indefinite time, or so long as the pro- 

 duction of new generations did not greatly exceed the 

 quantity of legal sized ones removed by the fishermen. 

 The mussel beds in the district are of all sizes, and the 

 conditions in some places more favourable for the pro- 

 duction of new stock than in others. So far as our 

 knowledge goes the Heysham Skears are tlie most jirolific 



