AnAMS : MUSSEL FISHING AND PEARL-BUTTON INDUSTRY. 213 



gonia verrucosa^; the "Butterfly" {Flagiola securis) ; the "Blue-point" 

 {Qnadrula undulaid); the "Hatchet-back" {Syviphinota complanatLi); 

 and several species of "Pocket-book clams" {Lampsilis capax and L. 

 ventricosus). A number of animals prey on the mussels, among them 

 the muskrat, mink and the racoon, the muskrat being specially 

 destructive. Catfish are also said to eat mussels, and hogs are very 

 injurious in some places. During floods shifting banks of mud and sand 

 often cover the mussel beds and so destroy vast quantities. The pollu- 

 tion from city refuse is perhaps the most serious cause of damage. In 

 1897 there were, between Burlington and Clinton, in Iowa, 300 mussel 

 fishermen, and in 1898 the number between Fort Madison and Sabula 

 was 1,000. At Muscatine alone 100 were employed. When the 

 fishermen find a good mussel-bed they sometimes earn $30 a week, 

 the probable average, however, beir^g about $10 a week. To secure 

 the mussels the men use large hand rakes, "tongs" and sometimes 

 large rakes hauled by a windlass. The hand rake has a wooden 

 handle 14 to 20 feet in length, the head of the rake having 12 — 14 

 iron teeth five inches long, and the head also forms a basket of wire 

 netting to secure the shells. The rake is used from an anchored boat; 

 the handle is placed over the fisherman's shoulder and the rake is 

 placed upstream to the full length of the pole. The man then works 

 the rake towards his boat, being aided in this by the action of the 

 current on a broad wooden piece nailed crosswise near the base of the 

 handle. The "tongs" or "scissor-rakes" are used in water from 10 to 

 15 feet in depth. They are formed of two rakes meeting when the 

 scissors are closed. 



The large "drag-rake" worked with a windlass has the appearance 

 of a flat cage, with long teeth projecting obliquely downwards from the 

 lower margin. There is one large rake at Muscatine worked from a 

 steam scow. Another curious contrivance is the "Crowfoot." It 

 consists of an iron rod, six feet long, to which are attached at intervals 

 of about six inches a series of four-pronged hooks, somewhat re- 

 sembling the large "triangle" used for pike fishing. At the ends of 

 the iron bar a rope is tied and to the middle of this is fastened the 

 rope by which the instrument is pulled along. Tlie fisherman throws 

 the ''crowfoot" overboard and allows the boat to drift down the 

 stream dragging the instrument with it, the hooks, as they pass over 

 the open mussels, enter the shells which close upon them and are thus 

 secured. 



In winter mussel fishing is carried on through the ice by means ot 

 the long hand rake. The following account will show how remarkably 

 prolific ;i mussel bed may be. At Leclaire, Iowa, in 1899 there was 

 a bed about a mile long and 100 yards wide which had been worked 



