252 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
and July, so that, as in the case of the mussel, the animal 
is protected for at least a portion of its yearly spawning 
period. 
No recent data exist on which to base an opinion as to 
whether the supply of cockles from the beds in the whole 
district 1s Increasing or decreasing ; but in 1879 Buckland 
and Walpole, in the course of an examination into the 
state of the Sea-Fisheries of England and Wales,* made a 
special investigation into the cockle fishery in Morecambe 
Bay, and obtained data which enable a comparison to be 
made between the output of the beds at the beginning and 
end of a period of 21 years. 
The Commissioners estimated the value of the pro- 
duce of the Morecambe Bay cockle beds for the year 1877 
at over 3,943 tons in weight, and at £20,000 in money 
value. Cockles were taken by them as worth £53 per ton. 
These figures agree fairly well with those given in this 
Memoir. For the year 1898—99 the amount landed is 
estimated at 3,240 tons, and their money value at £19,440. 
Here, however, £6 per ton is taken as representing the 
retail price. It is not certain from the Commissioners’ 
Report whether they regarded £54 per ton as the price 
received by the fishermen, or as the price paid by the 
consumer. It was also stated in evidence to the Com- 
missioners that 100 carts, with six or seven people to the 
cart, were employed cockling in Morecambe Bay. ‘This is 
fay in excess of the number estimated as at present em- 
ployed in the same area. 
A more exact means of forming a comparison is 
furnished by the return from the Furness Railway Com- 
pany, which is published in the Report for 1879. I am 
indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Aslett, the present 
* Report of the Commissioners for Sea Fisheries on the Sea Fisheries of 
England and Wales. 1879, pp. 21—23. 
