358 



Appendices to Fifth Annual Report 



On Some Experiments in Preserving Mussels for Bait. 



The importance of mussels for bait on the eastern shores of Scotland 

 cannot be over estimated. At St Andrews they are farmed by the Town 

 Council, and are sold to the local fishermen at the rate of Is. 2d. per 

 basket; about 3d., however, being paid in addition for cartage. As 

 mentioned in last year's Report they are generally prepared and placed on 

 the hooks by members of the fisherman's family, otherwise he has to pay 

 from 6d. to Is. per basket for this work. As the baited lines during 

 wintry weather have often to be kept for a fortnight or longer, and in 

 summer are more or less iujured in twenty-four hours, it would be a boon 

 to the fishermen if a suitable mode of preserving their good qualities as 

 bait could be applied in each case. It must be remembered that the houses 

 of the fishermen in which the lines generally lie after they are baited are 

 also unfitted for the preservation of any animal tissues, yet it is difficult to 

 keep them elsewhere — on the one hand for cats, and on the other for rats 

 and mice. The mussels certainly keep much better in cold weather on 

 board their boats, and the men sometimes prefer to run the risks just 

 mentioned when the lines are long detained. 



Mr Stephen Williamson, M.P., then a member of the Fishery Board, 

 and who had long taken a real interest in the welfare of the fishermen, 

 wrote me on the subject, mentioning also boro-glyceride as a substance 

 that might be tried. In former years, it is true, other compounds of 

 boracic acid had been used with considerable success in preserving beef 

 and other animal tissues, though in the case of the former the gustatory 

 results were not always so satisfactory as might have been wished. In the 

 case of the living mussels, however, there was good reason to believe that 

 such compounds would be found advantageous. 



The first experiments were made in January 1886, when a basketful of 

 the ordinary mussels were taken from their shells on the 16th, and care- 

 fully washed several times with pure sea water. This washing was con- 

 sidered an important feature, and one which the fishermen might follow 

 with advantage, for it occasionally happens that in very cold weather 

 fresh water slightly warmed is used in handling them, which of course at 

 once arrests ciliary action, and kills the mussels. In the same way, impure 

 water, even impure sea water, used in dealing with the mussels after they 

 are removed from the shells, has the same tendency. Scrupulous care in 

 washing the mussels, immediately after removal from their shells, with 

 sea water, would greatly assist in maintaining the bait in a fresh and 

 satisfactory state for fishing. This may easily be understood when it is 

 stated that, by the ordinary method, all the effused fluids of the more or 

 less bruised and lacerated mussels are collected in the vessel around them, 

 so that putrefaction is readily set up, while pure sea water, on the other 

 hand, keeps up the ciliary action of the gills, and promotes respiration and 

 general vitality. Thus it is why such living mussels make the most suc- 

 cessful bait. 



Immediately after thorough washing with sea water, the mussels were 

 placed in a solution of boro-glyceride, about a tablespoonful to a gallon 

 of fresh water, and kept there for fully a day and a half. They were then 

 placed on the hooks in the usual manner, with ' bent ' grass between the 

 layers of the line in the basket, and retained in one of the apartments of 

 the laboratory till 1st February ; that is a fortnight, a period generally 

 sufficient under ordinary circumstances to ruin the bait even in winter. 

 The line was given to one of the boats proceeding to the fishing ground 

 (at this time off Boarhills). The fishing that day on board all the boats 



