210 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Out-skear ; and (2) the deep water skears that seldom- or 

 never dry at low water even of a very high spring tide, 

 whore the mussels have to be fished for with the " long 

 craam " : Little Skears, Ringhole, Seldom Seen, Old 

 Gunnel, Whelk Hill, Cockup, Great Gunnel, Little 

 Gunnel, Bankside, Tacky John, Low Skear, Patrick 

 Skear. 



The depths of water on the skears at low water of a 

 sixteen feet tide is as follows : 



Little Skears ... 4 to G f t. N. side of Gunnels 10 to 14 ft. 

 Ringhole ... 10 to 20 ft. Great Gunnel ... 5 to 15 ft. 



Reap Skear ... 4 to 10 ft. Little Gunnel... 5 to 10 ft. 

 Seldom Seen ... 4 to 10 ft. Bank Side ... G to 20 ft. 

 Old Gunnel ... 4 to 10 ft. Jacky John ... 18 to 25 ft. 

 Low Skears ... 20 to 80 ft. 



History of the Transplanting. 

 When the Lancashire Sea Fisheries Committee was 

 established about the end of 1891, the wholesale removal 

 of mussels, for purposes other than food or bait, was put 

 an end to. One of the Bye-laws prohibited fishing for 

 mussels except by hand; or with a rake not exceeding 

 three feet in width, and used only from a boat when the 

 bed was covered with at least four feet of water. Another 

 Bye-law prohibited the removal of any mussels less than 

 two and a quarter inches in length. These Bye-laws 

 worked well for some years, and would have remained 

 >atisfactory for an indefinite time, or so long as the pro- 

 duction of new generations did nol greatly exceed the 

 quantity of legal sized ones removed by Hie fishermen. 

 The mussel beds in the districl are of all sizes, and the 

 conditions in some places more favourable for the pro- 

 duction of new stock than in others. So far as our 

 knowledge e;oes the Heysham Skears are the most prolific 



