82 
far too closely packed to grow to any size. The fishermen gather 
these mussels constantly for bait, and use two to each hook, but 
they still continue to grow in this particular spot as thickly as ever. 
Some of the smaller of these were transplanted to the experimental 
ground on the other side of the river, but they did not increase in 
size, and most of them died. 
All the animals seen were healthy, their stomachs containing 
much mud full of food-stuff, chiefly Diatoms. Specimens examined 
at the end of September were all spent, and continued to be thin 
until about January, when they were perceptibly filling out, and 
increased until the end of April and May, when many were quite 
ripe. This is evidently the beginning of the spatting season. The 
experimental mussels were not so far forward, probably owing to 
the transplanting. 
Few other mollusks live with the mussels on the right bank ; 
Littorina littorea, L. rudis, and L. obtusata are fairly abundant, and 
on the left bank Cardium edule and Macoma balthica are common. 
Mya arenaria also occurs higher up. 
More transplanting of suitable material to the left bank of the 
river, and protection during the spatting season seem to be the 
essentials in order to get good mussel bait from the Coquet. That 
spat is abundant is shown by the crowds of mussels clinging to 
anything suspended in the water and wherever they can get shelter. 
Also it is shown by the masses of smaller mussels clinging together 
on the rocks. A thorough thinning of these would be useful in 
order to enable the mussels to attain a larger size, and this should 
not be difficult to accomplish. 
ALNMOUTH (see Map III.). — Along the banks of the River 
Ain, below the bridge, there is much wet mud, which lies on 
sandstones and shales of the Carboniferous Limestone series, but 
the only place where mussels occur is the old course of the river. 
These mussels have had a curious history. In 1806, during a 
tremendous storm, the course of the river was changed in one night, 
and the hill on which the old church stood was completely cut off 
from the village. The following extract from a paper by Mr. 
George Tate is interesting.* “ Formerly the Ain found an outlet 
through a breach southward of the Church Hill, which was then 
united to the Cheese Hill by a low ridge. Time after time the 
* “An Account of Lesbury Parish.”— Proc. Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, 1877, p. 247. 
