356 



THE OCEAN WORLD. 



The mussels, like the oysters, are gregarious, and widely diffused 

 over all European seas. They abound on both sides the Channel, 

 their lower price having procured for them the name of " the poor 

 man's oyster;" but it is infinitely less digestible and savoury than its 

 congener. 



Many of our readers may think that mussels are found on the 

 shore in a state of nature, of good size, well flavoured, and fit for the 

 table. Nothing of the kind ! Detached from the rocks and cliffs of 



Q x 



Fig. 157. Byssus, mantle, and oviduct of Mytilus. 



A, right lobe of the mantle.; D, rectum ; G, branchiae ; H, foot ; j, posterior muscle ; L, superior 

 tube j o, heart ; P, ventricle ; Q, auricle ; x, pericardium ; b, tentacles ; d, byssus ; e, gland of 

 the byssus ; g, retractile muscle of the foot ; h, valves of the mantle ; i, oviduct ; /, orifice of the 

 excretory organ ; k, internal ditto. 



the sea, where it has been growing in a natural state, it is lean, small, 

 acrid, and unwholesome food ; and it is only when human industry 

 intervenes to ameliorate this child of Nature that it becomes palatable 

 and wholesome food. In order to trace the ameliorative process by 

 which the leathery flesh of the mussel is rendered tender, fat, and 

 even savoury, we must conduct the reader back into the middle ages. 

 Some time in 1236 a barque, freighted with sheep and manned 

 by three Irishmen, struck upon the rocks in the creek of Aiguillon, 

 a few miles distant from Rochelle. The neighbouring fishermen 

 who came to the relief of the crew succeeded with great difficulty in 

 saving the life of the master, a man named Walton. Exiled upon 



