262 MARITIME PISCICULTURE. 



So fertile be the flouds 'in generation, 



So huge their numbers, and so numberless their nation." 



SPENSER. 



To demonstrate this has been the object of our articles 

 on Pisciculture. 



Our present article relates to the rearing of a shell- 

 fish, by no means so valuable as the oyster, and yet 

 deserving of cultivation not merely as an article of 

 human food, but also as the bait largely used in the 

 capture of valuable species of sea-fish. We refer to the 

 mussel, not'to be always eaten with impunity by human 

 beings for on some constitutions it acts perniciously, 

 and sometimes fatally, when it has been taken from 

 filthy harbours, or from copper-bottomed ships ; but 

 valuable, notwithstanding, as the bait largely used by 

 our fishermen. The procuring of it is the laborious 

 and degrading work of the fisherwomen physically 

 injurious, because pursued often in the most inclement 

 weather, and at the earliest dawn, or late at night, as 

 necessitated by the state of the tide ; and mentally 

 hurtful likewise. The fisherwomen on the east coast of 

 Scotland are deplorably ignorant, being hard-wrought 

 in gathering bait and fastening it to the hooks ; and this 

 ceaseless bait-gathering is found to be a serious diffi- 

 culty in getting them to give anything like regular 

 attendance at adult classes. Moreover, the mussel in 

 certain localities is becoming exceedingly scarce. In 

 the vicinity of Arbroath, for example, it is procur- 

 able with such difficulty that the fishermen have long 

 been in the habit of seeking a supply from the opposite 

 coast of Fife, at the mouth of the Eden, near St An- 

 drews. There, too, the supply has failed them from 

 some unascertained cause ; and the curious result is 

 this : The estuary of the Clyde supplies the estuary of 

 the Tay with mussels for bait ; the expensive means of 

 transport being the railway.* 



* A gentleman acquainted with the fishing villages round 

 Arbroath has obligingly supplied the following information : 



