Mussels as Manure and Export ; Sex. 197 



the transaction, and there the matter rested. Similarly the 

 late Mr. George Baxter made a fruitless venture. Those 

 therefore who decry and would prohibit the Kentish men's 

 dredging for mussels, to be used as manure for land culture, 

 would do well to ponder ere too pronouncedly expressing 

 opinion thereon. Certainly it would go hard with our fishers 

 if "made a penal offence to use mussels for manure," as recom- 

 mended by Robertson Carr.* 



In connection therewith Prof. Mclntosh's report on the 

 Yorkshire bedsf possesses much interest and information. 

 The condition of things there is, however, on a different 

 footing, and defective local supplies are imported from 

 Germany, the Netherlands and elsewhere. But how comes it 

 mussels do not pay in exportation from the Thames estuary ? 

 We are not prepared to answer ; rather at a loss to understand 

 wherefore there has not been more persistent business efforts 

 made to secure a trade among the north-eastern fishermen, 

 who crave for them as bait. Thus we are driven to the 

 supposition that the cost of labour in this country is the 

 initial drawback, not altogether the want of energy in our 

 merchants. J 



Sex and Spawning, fyc. In the early stages of the edible 

 mussel, distinction of sex is rather obscure to the naked eye ; 

 but as the generative organs ripen differentiation into male and 

 female becomes apparent. The male then is characterised by 

 paler coloured tracery of sperm-sacs, whereas the female has 



* Prize Essay, Fisheries Exhib., Literature, Lond., 1883 (Vol. IV., 1884). 



t Rep. on Mussel and Cockle Beds, Estuaries of the Tees, the Esk and the Humber, 

 1891. See also several short notices in Reports Northumberland 8. F. Comma, by King, 

 Wilson and Meek ; besides Herdman and Scott's articles in Lancashire S. F. Laboratory 

 Reports for 1892 on to 1900. 



% We have elicited the following from an old hand, who can recollect batches of 

 seed mussels being forwarded to Scotland. He puts it thus, without vouching for the 

 accuracy of the figures : " In our estuary at the time referred to the buying price of 

 the mussels in question would be (say) Is. per tub or bag. Men were empk^ed to ' set 

 them out,' then 6d. per bag was paid to pick them up. The bag itself cost 3d., and the 

 carriage to London by sailing boat was 6d. Hence each bag cost the vendor 2s. 3d., 

 for which his return from the buyer (who paid steamboat carriage from London 

 north; was only 2s. per bag, or at a loss of 3d. on each bag. This strange mercantile 

 transaction was pursued for the reason that it was more economical to lose 3d. per bag 

 and thus get rid of certain over-stock than otherwise to clear and clean the beds." 



