196 Abundance of Mussels Thames Estuary. 



prevail. Hamford Water, Harwich and the river mouths 

 thereabouts, all have scattered mussel collections. 



Redundance in our District. It will be readily understood 

 then their numbers are far from few. Thus, as in the case 

 of the indigenous oyster, the mussels keep company, even pre- 

 dominate, in the muddy places, and wherever they are, there 

 is abundance of minor life and brood fish hovering hard by. 

 At the same time, as Coleman has remarked (Field, 1869), 

 a heavy fall of mussel spat is sometimes dangerous to oysters, 

 by gathering mud and otherwise smothering them, besides 

 competing for food a view corroborated by Anderson, Baxter 

 and other practical oyster growers. 



Quite contrary to what is the state of things on the N.E. 

 English and Scottish shores where mussels can hardly be 

 obtained in sufficient quantity for bait to the line fishers Kent 

 and Essex could willingly spare, and be the gainers thereby. 

 Yet Wilcocks,* evidently only on theoretical grounds, suggested 

 as desirable places for mussel bouchot culture, Sandwich Haven, 

 Swale, Medway, Crouch, Blackwater, Colne, Stour and Orwell ; 

 giving his diagram-plans of proposed wattled palisadings on 

 the French system for Hamford Water, Colne, &c. 



In discussion of a resolution for a uniform close time for 

 mussels, brought forward at a Fisheries Conference by Super- 

 intendent Dawsonf (of Lane. Sea Fish. Comm.), our colleague, 

 Capt. Austin, then forcibly put the Kent and Essex case thus : 

 " The oyster beds are being destroyed by the accumulation of 

 mussels, therefore to make any bye-laws for the whole coast of 

 England would be, to put it mildly, absurd." Coleman followed 

 by assuring those present that " We should be glad if some of 

 our North Sea friends would come and fetch them away." He 

 had, it seems, about 1876, sent mussels for bait to Scotland 

 from the Thames estuary, but the expenses of carriage nullified 



* Prize Essay, Internat. Fish. Exhib., Lond., 1883 (Vol. XL, 1884). 



t Rep. Proc. Conference, Nat. Sea Fish. Protect. Assoc., 1893. Bye-laws prohibiting 

 taking of mussels from May to August inclusive are in force in the Eastern, Western 

 and Lancashire Districts ; and from May to July inclusive in the Glamorgan District. 



