130 



SEA-SHORE LIFE 



Fig. 50/ EDIBLE MUSSEL. Cape 

 Ann, Mass. 



ing the foot upwards, and attaching themselves successively 

 higher and higher up by means of ne^\'ly formed hyssus threads. 

 When the tide is high tlie valves of the mussels will be seen to 



be gaping, and the beautifully 

 fringed edges of their mantles 

 protruding slightly, allowing 

 water and minute organisms to be 

 drawn into their gill cavities, and 

 from thence into their mouths at 

 the opposite end of the shell. 

 There are two adductor muscles 

 instead of one, as in the oyster, 

 but in most respects the anatomy 

 of the mussel closely approaches that of the oyster. In France the 

 mussels are cultivated and liighly esteemed as food, and the fishery 

 is worth more than ft 150,000 annually. We raahe very little use 

 of our mussels, as at times they are said to be more or less jjoison- 

 ous; especially those found growing upon wood. An account of 

 the development of the edible mussel is given by John Wilson in 

 "Fifth Annual Re- 

 port of the Fishery 

 Board for S c o t - 

 land," for 1886, 



The Ribbed 

 Mussel, (Modiolu 

 'plicatuhi, Fit/. 01 J, 

 can be disting- 

 uished by the radi- 

 ating ridges of the 

 shell. It is a brack- 

 ish water species 

 and is found Ijetween tide limits from Nova Scotia to Georgia. 

 '■■■■ The Horse Mussel, or Bearded Mussel, (Modiola 'modiolus, Fig. 

 94), lives half buried in gravelly bottoms, or firmly attached by its 

 byssus threads within crevices of rocks, below low-tide level. It 

 ranges from New Jersey to the Arctic Ocean, and tlie northern 

 coasts of Europe. It is chestnut brown, and the skin flakes off 

 around the edges of the shell, forming a shaggy yellow ''beard." 



Fig. gi : KIUBED MISSEL. 



■■All illustration of the Horse Mussel with scale limpets and 

 page 143. 



: cocoons of Rock Snail, on 



