APPENDIX* v?$ 



is certainly a contradiction, as nobody would employ nets 

 to gather fi(h from among rocks. On the contrary, all kinds 

 of pearl are found in the deepeft, Hilled water,. and foftefi 

 bottom. The parts of moft of them are too fine to bear the 

 agitation of the fea among rocks. Their manners and 

 ceconomy are little known, but, as far as I have obferved, 

 they are all ftuck in the mud upright by an extremity, the 

 mufTel by one end, the pinna by the fmall fharp point, and- 

 the berberi, or lule, by the hinge or fquare part which projects 

 from the round. 



In mallow and clear ftreams I have feen fmall furrows 

 or tracts, upon the Tandy bottom, by which you could trace 

 the mufTel, from its laft ftation, and thefe not flraight, but 

 deviating into traverfes and triangle?, like the courfe of a 

 fliip in a contrary wind laid down upon a map, the tract of 

 the mufTel probably in purfuit of food. The general 

 Belief is, that the muflel is conftantly flationary in a ftate 

 of repofe,, and cannot transfer itfelf from place to place. 

 This is a vulgar prejudice,, and one of thofe facts that are 

 miftaken for want of fufficient pains, or opportunity, to make 

 more critical obfervation. Others finding the ii rift opinion a 

 falfe one, and that they are endowed with power of chang- 

 ing place like other animals, have, upon the fame founda- 

 tion, gone into the contrary extreme, fo far as to attribute 

 fwiftnefs to them, a property furely inconfiflent with their 

 being fixed to rocks. Pliny and Solinus fay, that the muf- 

 fel have leaders, and go in flocks, and that their leader is 

 endowed with great cunning, to protect himfelf and his flock 

 from the fifliers, and when he is taken, the others fall an 

 eafy prey. This however I think we are to look upon as a 

 fiable. Some of the moll accurate obfervers havinp- difco- 



vered- 



