Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 45 



the edge of the thoroughfare between the lakes ; occasional ex- 

 amples can, however, be picked up almost anywhere along shore, 

 and it appears to be increasing considerably along shore at Long 

 Point. Anodonta grandis footiana, which can live in softer bottom 

 than the other mussels, has a considerably wider distribution, and 

 was dredged up in deeper water than any of the other mussels. 



The mussels are to be found almost anywhere in water from 

 2 to 5 or 6 feet deep where the bottom is more or less sandy or 

 marly. The beds are composed chiefly of the three principal spec- 

 ies of the lake, Lampsilis luteola, Unio gibbosus and Anodonta 

 grandis footiana, with the less common species sparsely inter- 

 spersed. Especially good mussel beds occur at Long Point, along 

 shore by Farrar's and McDonald's, by the Depot grounds, in 

 Aubeenaubee Bay out from the Military Academy, and in the shal- 

 low water just beyond the mouth of Norris Inlet. Mussels are 

 fairly well scattered from Long Point more or less continuously all 

 the way southward to beyond Overmyer's hill, and from a little 

 north of the ice-houses all the way around to the Military Academy. 

 They are quite abundant in the neighborhood of Winfield's in shal- 

 low water, and occur scattered along the east side of the lake a 

 little way out from shore. A good mussel bed is found in Lost 

 Lake along the east shore, extending from a little south of the 

 Bardsley cottage to where the bulrushes and water-lilies grow 

 thickly in the soft black muck near shore. 



Movements: — Closely connected with the question of distribu- 

 tion is that of movement. The greater number of mussels of the 

 lake, especially in the deeper water, spend their lives in a state of 

 quiescence. Young mussels appear to be more active than older 

 ones. The mussels retain the power of locomotion during all their 

 lives, but after they have got well settled down, they only occa- 

 sionally use this power. The mussels of the shallow water near 

 shore move out into deeper water at the approach of cold weather, 

 in late autumn or early winter, and bury themselves more deeply 

 in the sand. This movement is rather irregular and was not ob- 

 served every year. It was strikingly manifest in the late autumn 

 of 1913, when at one of the piers off Long Point a large number of 

 furrows was observed heading straight into deep water with a 

 mussel at the outer end of each. The return of the mussels to 

 shore during the spring and summer was not observed. Many of 

 them are probably washed shoreward by strong waves of the spring 

 and summer storms, and some are carried shoreward by muskrats 

 and dropped there. Occasional mussels were observed . moving 

 about in midwinter — even in rather deep water. During the 



