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Part III. — Thirteenth Annual Report 



before my visit did it as much good by lessening its height, as Mr West 

 considers would be done by allowing it to lie fallow for three years. 

 This storm which worked much havoc by the heaping together of the 

 mussels and by the burying of them, especially on the West Steinschell 

 Bank, cast ashore one hundred cart loads of sea-weed on the Salthouse 

 and neighbouring banks, and so did much good, though also much harm 

 to the mussel farmers. In 1894, the upper end of it was again stocked 

 with seed mussels from the Scalp, and though the lower end of it towards 

 Rossie Island is now bare, yet there is a sufficient quantity of mussels on 

 the upper end to cover its whole area when they are spread out. 



Messes. J. Johnston & Sons. 



(1) . Briggs of Binny. — This bank is a seeding area and nursery for 

 young mussels, and received a coating of seed in 1893 and in 1894. In 

 1893, its whole area was covered with seed, but a succession of gales and 

 spates carried away half of the crop. Those mussels which were carried 

 off during the flood-tide were swept to the westward, and were partly 

 deposited on the bank on the upper side, and to this extent the loss was 

 mitigated. Part of it was again covered by seed last winter, but the 

 coating was small as compared with that of the previous season. The 

 seed noticed first in the winter of 1893 was partly removed in 1894 to 

 the other banks on the west of the Steinschell Burn, and the remainder 

 of the same deposit of seed was being removed early this year, 1895. 

 The seed of the winter of 1894 will remain on the Briggs of Binny till 

 next year. The bank was being cleaned so as to be ready for the 

 summer deposit of seed of 1895. This bank experiences the effects of 

 storms and spates and its value as a catchment basin for seed is pro- 

 portionally lessened. Its surface consists of stones and gravel which 

 serve for collectors. 



(2) . Big Binny Bank like the Briggs of Binny is also hard ground — 

 sand and gravel. The gravel, which is found where the eddy currents are 

 strongest felt, extends over an area of 300 yards long by 80 yards broad, 

 and it affords good resting-places for the young of the mussels. In the 

 winter of 1893-94, it was seen to be covered with seed, which had not 

 been noticed on it some months earlier, and Mr Andrew Lonie, the superin- 

 tendent, believes that the seed was deposited in the winter, designating 

 it by the name of January seed. He came to this conclusion also from 

 the impoverished and thin condition of the adult mussels in the neigh- 

 bourhood. Probably the seed was deposited some considerable time 

 before it was observed, as when the embryo mussel-shell is transparent 

 and minute it is not readily seen. At any rate, the spat must have been 

 late in the season. If the spat was shed as late as the end of September 

 and fixed then, the stagnation in growth, which many marine animals 

 exhibit during the colder months of the year, might account for the very 

 small size of the seed when it was first noticed in January 1894. It is 

 evident that the spat must have been a late one, but it is unnecessary to 

 place the spatting period so late as the end of the year. The impoverished 

 and thin condition of the adults might be due not to spatting alone but 

 perhaps also to the mussels being supplied with too much fresh water 

 from the increased rainfall in the river basin ; in this the normal quantity 

 of food would be greatly lessened. The seed which was first seen in 

 January 1894, is still on Big Binny Bank, but is now ready to be lifted 

 However, as all the available ground on the Dun side of Montrose Basin 

 is filled with mussels at various stages of development, the superintendent 



