PEARLY FRESH-WATER MUSSELS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
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of Eockford, 111., states that crows carry some of the large species from Eock Biver 
to a considerable height in the air and droii them on the rocks, where they are 
broken, and thns they can feast on the animals. 
Many years ago Dr. Isaac Lea bestowed the specific name salmonia on an Anodonta, 
which had peculiarly roughened, orange-colored nacre, and which was quite abundant 
in some parts of Eew York. Since then a number of other species have been found 
to occasionally exhibit this peculiar, roughened, blistered nacre, sometimes yellow, 
salmon, orange, or even a dirty white, and Prof. H. L. Osborn has recently shown in 
the Zoological Bulletin (vol. l, Ho. 6, pp. 301-310) that this is the work of a Trematode. 
The so-called Anodonta salmonia, when free from this parasite, is the Anodonta, grandis 
of Say. I have seen quantities of mussel shells greatly injured by this pest, and 
though it may not actually destroy the animals, it unquestionably does great damage. 
The question, ‘‘Can anything be done to save these mussels'?” is a most impor- 
tant one. It is not difficult to enact statutes to protect timber, fish, or wild game; 
but it is one thing to make laws and another to enforce them. Whatever is furnished 
by the bounty of nature seems to be the jiroperty of the first one getting hold of it. 
In wanton wastefulness, man has destroyed many millions of acres of our original 
forest, until now ive are forced to go without timber, or plant and raise it; he has 
swept out of existence much of our wild game, and made the most serious inroads on 
the fishes. And now it seems as though he must exterminate the Naiades. Ho doubt 
the settling up of the country, breaking the land, fencing and pasturing every foot of 
ground, draining out the ponds and marshes, and cutting down the timber indirectly 
proves destructive to the clams. The water which falls as rain or snow rapidly runs 
off as disastrous floods at times, and in a short time after the heaviest rains the ground 
is dry and, consequently, in the summer months many of the streams cease to flow. 
I remember forty years ago when the larger streams and smaller rivers of northern 
Illinois were perennial and meandered through thick woods, with here and there deep, 
quiet pools, and they were filled with fresh- water mussels. To-day they go dry during 
severe droughts; they are wide-bedded and shallow; their banks are shadeless; the 
pools, have disappeared, and so have the mussels. 
Hogs are a great enemy of the Naiades, and they not only destroy such as are 
found on the surface, but root them out from almost any depth. They should be kept 
away from streams and lakes, especially during low water. I have seen hundreds of 
acres of river bed during the time of low water comiiletely dug over by hogs, and 
nothing left of the mussels but broken shells. 
The dumifings of manufactories and the sewage of cities turned into rivers are 
destroying not only the fish but the Naiades. In many places below factories or cities 
the water of the streams is offensively foul and wholly changed in color, so that prac- 
tically no kind of organic life can exist in it. Along the Potomac and Shenandoah 
rivers, in the vicinity of Hariiers Ferry and above it, are a number of miils which 
grind wood into a pulp for the manufacture of paper. These throw their sawdust and 
waste into the streams, and down below, where the water is comiiaratively quiet, it 
settles to the bottoin, forming great masses of slushy, putrid matter, which is, no 
doubt, destructive to fish and mussels. The city of Chicago is about to turn its sewage 
into the Des Plaines Eiver, from which it will be carried into the Illinois Eiver, a 
stream abounding with the very finest of fresh-water mussels. There can be but little 
doubt that this great vohune of filth and poison will destroy every mussel in both of 
these streams, and may exert its deleterious influence even on the Mississippi Eiver 
