432 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 



generally utilised. Many might also be preserved cooked 

 in butter or oil and inclosed in tins. Mussels and others 

 of this kind thus prepared were shown in tins at Arcachon 

 and other fishery exhibitions. 



On the French coasts the fishermen gather enormous 

 quantities of fresh mussels every day, and take them in 

 carts, or on the backs of horses to La Rochelle and other 

 places, from whence they are sent as far as Tours, 

 Limoges, and Bordeaux. 



The number of mussels taken in France and used for 

 food was in 1876, 396,344 hectolitres (of 2| bushels), and 

 in 1878, 506,648 hectolitres ; in 1879, 503,170; and 1880 

 514,814. In 1883 the quantity of mussels brought into 

 France was 578,000,000 hectolitres, or little more than 

 half the take of the previous year. Of other moUusks, 

 151,628 hectolitres in 1876 ; 145,536 hectolitres in 1878 ; 

 128,677 in 1879 ; and 191,183 in 1880. 



The Billingsgate market is chiefly supplied with mus- 

 sels from Holland, the east coast of England, Cornwall, 

 and Devonshire. About ten or twenty tons' weight 

 arrive at a time, though of course the quantity varies 

 according to the season, and they are sold at one shilling 

 a measure. Mussels are fit to be eaten at two years old, 

 they are then two inches long, and there is a regulation 

 that they must not be sold under that size. The 

 growth, however, partly depends on the nature of the 

 beds. There are two trades in mussels, one in those used 

 for food, and the other those sold as bait for fishermen. 

 In 1871 the sales at Boston amounted to £5,000 in 

 value, but I have not later statistics. 



The greater part of the mussels taken at Morecambe 

 are sold for food in Lancashire and Yorkshire. They fetch 

 from two shillings the cwt. upwards. In the three years 

 ending 1878 the Midland Railway brought from More- 

 cambe on an average about 1,700 tons of mussels a 

 year. From Listowel about 20,000 tons are sent to 

 London yearly by the London and South Western Rail- 

 way from September to February, when they cease to 

 be fit for food. 



