12 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
year that it had been almost entirely destroyed by the 
eravel dredgers who have scooped up both gravel and 
mussels and shipped them to the Manchester Ship Canal, 
for making concrete. At Conway there 1s a very important 
bed forming the chief resource of the fishermen there who 
both selland use them for bait in Codling fishing with 
hand lines. This bed was becoming much exhausted, but 
the Carnarvonshire Fishery Board have now imposed a 
close time of three months which, it is hoped, may restore 
it. Itis a pity that the fishermen are not compelled to 
sort the Mussels at the beds, throwing the small ones in 
again there, instead of bringing them up to the town and 
picking them over on the shore. As however the sorting 
is done close by the river and the small ones thrown in, 
they probably get carried down to the bed again by the 
current. 
It would seem that the Mussel only grows to a large’ 
size at the mouth of a river. I have found at times in 
dredging in Rhos Bay small Mussels in such masses as to 
be a nuisance (from a Naturalist’s point of view) but none 
of anything like a marketable size. 
So far, I believe, nothing has been done to protect the- 
Mussel fisheries either in the Dee or Foryd. 
Freshwater Mussels. 
~The Rev. Robert Williams in his history of Aberconwy 
(Conway), 1835, speaks of the Unio margaritifer as being 
fished for above Trefriw for the pearls they sometimes 
contain, though the search for them did not afford con- 
stant employment. On the other hand, he states that 
the edible Mussel (Mytilus edulis) was collected and des- 
troyed in immense quantities for the sake of the few 
pearls found. Iam not aware that either species 1s now - 
collected for that purpose. 
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