BIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 361 



remarked that those which inhabit the upper rows of the wicker-work 

 are of a mellower flavour than those on the lower ranks, and that the 

 intermediate rows are an improvement on those which are buried in 

 the mud, although even these are preferable to mussels gathered on 

 the sea- shore in a state of nature. 



M. Coste gives a graphic description of the manner in which this 

 industry is carried on. " Having supplied the neighbouring villages," 

 he says, " for the purpose of supplying the more distant cities, the 

 bouchotiers land their punts, filled with mussels, which their wives 

 carry into grottoes hollowed out of the cliffs, where they clean and 

 pack them in hampers, baskets, and panniers, for conveyance by 

 carts or pack-horses. They depart on their respective journeys at 

 night, so as to reach their markets at La Rochelle, Rochefort, 

 Surgeres, Saint-Jean-d'Angely, Angouleme, Niort, Poitiers, Tours, 

 Angers, and Saumur, at an early hour. A hundred and forty horses 

 and ninety carts make upwards of 33,000 journeys annually to 

 these cities. Besides this, forty or fifty boats come from Bordeaux, 

 the isles of Re and Oleron, and from the sands of Olonne, 

 making an aggregate of 750 voyages per annum, distributing the 

 harvest of the little bay at places where horses could not serve 

 the purpose. 



" A bouchot, well furnished, supplies annually, according to the 

 length of its wings, from 400 to 500 charges. The charge is 150 

 kilogrammes (over 300 pounds), and sells for five francs ; a single 

 bouchot thus carries a harvest equal in weight to 130,000 to 140,000 

 pounds, equal in value to ^100 ; the whole bay probably yielding a 

 gross revenue of ,480,000. This figure, and the abundant harvest 

 which produces it, gives only a slight idea of the elementary resources 

 of the sea-shore ; and every part of the coast, properly adapted for 

 the purpose, could be turned to equal advantage. In the meantime, 

 the Bay of Aiguillon remains a monument of what one man may 

 accomplish." 



While commending the mussel as an important article of food, we 

 must not conceal the fact that it has produced in certain persons 

 very grave effects, showing that for them its flesh has the effects of 

 poison. The symptoms, commonly observed two or three hours 

 after the repast, are weakness or torpor, constriction of the throat and 

 swelling of the head, accompanied by great thirst, nausea, frequent 

 vomitings, and eruption of the skin and severe itching. 



The cause of these attacks is not very well ascertained ; they have 

 in turn been ascribed to the presence of the coppery pyrites in the 

 neighbourhood of the mussel ; to certain small crabs which lodge 



