4314 Mollusks. 



adds, " In my fishing excursions I have frequently met with the 

 shells, which are about four inches long by two broad, and of a dark 

 gray colour outside ; but I have no recollection of having ever seen 

 one with a live fish. I strongly suspect that the flood of 1829 

 has destroyed great numbers of them, as their remains along the 

 banks of the Spey are now less frequently to be met with than they 

 were previous to that period. There is a traditional account of 

 an English company having fished for them about sixty or seventy 

 years ago ; but the fishing turned out unsuccessful, and consequently 

 was discontinued. I have never seen or heard of any historical 

 report of this company." 



Duck Mud-mussel, Anadonta cygnea. Occasional. Mostowie, 

 1827. Mr. Martin finds it in an old canal near Inch Broom ; and 

 Mr. Robertson, in a moss below Newton. Lochinvar and Inver- 

 lochty, Mr. Macdonald. 



The Common Mussel, Mytilus edulis. This well known shell-fish 

 is most abundant in a young state, or rather in a diminutive form, on 

 all the rocks that lie between tide-marks ; but few are found on the 

 Elginshire shores of size sufficient to be bait for the fishermen's hook. 

 This industrious and hardy race of people have at least once a year 

 to go to the Tain or Cromarty Firths (and at times, even as far South 

 as the Tay and the Forth) and dredge, each crew, a boatful, for 

 which they pay from £5 to £8. At the bar opposite the town 

 of Findhorn, there is a small bed of mussels, of a size fitted for bait, 

 which is believed to be indigenous. The mussels that are imported 

 by the fishermen are stored up in small squares, bounded by lines of 

 large stones, in any sheltered spot near low-water mark, where 

 neither the tidal or stormy currents nor the shifting sands can molest 

 them. The mussel is seldom seen exposed for sale in the inland 

 markets, and in the fishing villages its value is too great to be appro- 

 priated in any other way than as one of the best and most commonly 

 used kinds of bait for the fishing-lines. Some of the larger gulls 

 seem to feed freely on the small-sized mussels. 



The Horse Mussel, Modiola Modiolus, (M. vulgaris, Flem., and 

 M. barbatus, Mac.) One long known and extensive habitat for this 

 large bivalve, lies in the Moray Firth, and has the following bearings, 

 as communicated by a most intelligent, obliging, industrious, and de- 

 serving fisherman, Mr. James Scott, of Stotfield, who has been the 

 means of making less adventurous observers acquainted with many of 

 the rarer zoological treasures of the deep. " The scaup or horse- 

 mussel bank lies by compass N.E. from Lossiemouth, and distant 



