MYTILIDjE. MUSSEL. 51 



depth, when the man with a long pole ascertains the depth 

 of the mussel-bed. This pole, which has a sharpened end, 

 is struck into the bed, and serves as the anchor or moor- 

 ing for the boat ; the woman, with her arms round it, 

 makes it her line of descent. With this, as a conductor, 

 she slides or slips down, and soon reappears, with her 

 arms crossed round the pole, but with both hands as 

 full as they can hold of mussels. Having deposited her 

 handfuls in the canoe, she descends again and again sis 

 or eight times, until her cargo is complete. Upon Cap- 

 tain O'Brien's remonstrating with a man for imposing 

 such a dangerous duty upon a woman, instead of under- 

 going it himself, he explained to him, that this diving 

 was a privilege of the sex, and that no man would dare 

 to be so unmanly as to rob a woman of her birthright. 

 These Chilian, or Bay of Concepcion belles, sell their 

 produce in the market for dresses and finery. 



The usual size of the common mussel is about two 

 inches and a half in length, and about half that breadth ; 

 but in 1862 I procured two specimens from Exmouth, 

 which had been dredged, the largest measuring five 

 inches in length and two and a half in breadth, the other 

 four inches long and one and a quarter wide. Mr. Jef- 

 freys also mentions having a specimen which measures 

 nearly five inches in length. Though mussels are a 

 valuable article of food, and considered wholesome, yet 

 many cases of poisoning by mussels have occurred ; but 

 it may generally be traced to their having been gathered 

 from either the sides of docks, or piers, where there are 

 copper bolts or nails, or from ships that are copper- 

 bottomed ; or else from the neighbourhood of large town 

 sewers, the sewerage water running over the rocks on 

 which the mussels grow. In the 'Field,' November 



e2 



