MUSSELS OF CENTRAL AND NORTHEEN MINNESOTA. 3 



MINNESOTA RIVER DRAINAGE. 



The Minnesota River itself is full of button mussels, as are most 

 of its large tributaries, and many carloads are shipped from Granite 

 Falls, Mankato, and other centers. These shells contain a large 

 percentage of blue-points and three-ridges, and many of them are 

 also spotted or thin at the tips, hence they do not appeal quite so 

 strongly to the shell buyers. 



And yet there is an abundance of good material here that is well 

 worth utilizing. A blank factory at one or two of the central points 

 on the main river would be able to use many tons of spotted and 

 partially thin shells that are noAV rejected as not being worth the 

 heavy freight rates down to Wisconsin and Iowa. Many of the lakes 

 in Grant and Douglas Counties drain into the Minnesota Eiver, but 

 none of the 20 or more that were visited contained any commercial 

 shells. Several of them, however, afford most desirable conditions 

 for the propagation of valuable button mussels, as will be noted later. 



MISSISSIPPI RIVER DRAINAGE. 



The upper Mississippi includes by far the most important lakes 

 and tributary rivers in the State. Beginning at the north there is 

 an abundance of good button shells around Bemidji, both up the 

 river above Lake Irving and down the river between Lake Bemidji 

 and Cass Lake. One man collected 3 tons of fine muckets and pocket- 

 books in a very small area at the outlet of Lake Bemidji, and 2 or 3 

 carloads could be obtained with little difficulty. The shells are of 

 good size and luster and very few of them are spotted. Here again 

 is an excellent location for a blank factory. 



Cass, Winnebigoshish, and Leech Lakes contain no commercial 

 mussels, but two of the tributaries of Leech Lake were reported by a 

 mussel fisherman to be full of good button shells. The first was 

 .j^inda River, which runs through a lake of the same name and 

 empties into Leech Lake on the south. The other was Laura River, 

 the outlet of Laura Lake, which empties into the east arm of Leech 

 Lake. The shells found were muckets and pocketbooks. 



Prairie River rises near Hibbing and flows down in Itasca County, 

 through Prairie Lake into the Mississippi just below Grand Rapids. 

 Both the loAver river and the lake were examined and found to con- 

 tain an abundance of fat muckets of excellent quality. They are of 

 good size and fine luster, and are not spotted. Fully tAvo-thirds of 

 the shell could be utilized for buttons. Farther up the river there 

 are large beds containing the common mucket and the pocketbook, as 

 well as the fat mucket. 



