MUSSELS AND THE MILLENNIUM! 269 



At the end of ten or twelve months the mussels are 

 marketable. They now undergo their last transporta- 

 tion to the in-shore hurdles, where they are at hand, 

 and do not suffer though the sea leave them dry twice 

 every day. It is a singular fact that mussels growing 

 together on the same hurdles do not all possess the 

 same qualities. Those on the highest rows are better- 

 flavoured than those on the middle rows, and the latter 

 again are deemed inferior to those lower down, which 

 are covered with mud whenever the waves agitate the 

 bottom. But M. Coste affirms that " even the least 

 esteemed of these mussels are much preferable to the 

 finest gathered in the sea." 



Mussels, being so abundant and cheap as to have 

 become the daily food of the labouring classes, are sold 

 during the whole year ; but from July to January they 

 are in the greatest perfection. From the end of Febru- 

 ary to the end of April they are milky, and, like oysters 

 at the spawning-time, lose the qualities they previously 



Having thus explained how mussels become an edible 

 of value, we trust that we have indicated to our hardy 

 fishermen a source of profitable employment, as yet only 

 partially developed. Why should mussels in driblets 

 only bitter and tough, moreover, and fit only for bait 

 be all that we can exhibit on our Scottish coasts ? 

 Beared by millions, and improved by cultivation, they 

 support in comfort several thousand French fishermen, 

 the owners of a hundred and forty horses and ninety 

 carts employed in supplying with this by us neglect- 

 ed shellfish the towns of Rochelle, Rochefort, Poitiers, 

 Tours, Saumur, &c. 



Each bouchot bears a harvest of from a hundred and 

 twenty to a hundred and fifty pounds' weight, worth 

 from 84 to 105. M. Coste notes the important fact 

 that, since this industry was largely prosecuted, there 

 is in the locality enriched by Walton's discovery no 

 healthy man who is poor. Those whom infirmity con- 



