48 
EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 
sels from Holland, the east coast of England, Cornwall, 
and Devonshire, in August and September, though 
smaller quantities are received from other parts of our 
coasts, besides those above mentioned. About ten or 
twenty tons weight arrive at a time, though, of course, 
the quantity varies according to the season, and they are 
sold at Is. a measure. In the evidence given before the 
Fisheries Commission, at Exeter, December 24, 1863, 
it was stated, that the price of these shell-fish taken in 
the estuary at Lympstone w^as 8^. per sack of ten pecks, 
but that the supply was decreasing. 
Dr. Knapp informed Messrs. Forbes and Hanley 
that the quantity of mussels consumed in Edinburgh 
and Leith is about 10 bushels per week, say for forty 
weeks in the year, in all 400 bushels annually. Each 
bushel of mussels, when freed and shelled from all re- 
fuse, will probabl}^ contain from 3 to 4 pints of the ani- 
mals, or about 900 to 1000, according to their size. 
Taking the latter number, there will be consumed, in 
Edinburgh and Leith, about 400,000 mussels. This is a 
mere trifle compared to the enormous number used as 
bait for all sorts of fish, especially haddocks, cod, ling, 
halibut, plaice, skate, etc. ; and at Newhaven, the total 
consumption of mussels for bait may be reckoned at 
4,320,000 annually. There are nearly as many used at 
Musselburgh, Fisherrow, etc., and other places on the 
Frith of Forth, and we may calculate that 30,000,000 
or 40,000,000 of mussels are used for bait alone by the 
fishermen of that district each year.^^* 
The mussel has the power of attaching itself by means 
of its byssus’^ to rocks and stones ; and we read that 
the bridge at Bideford, in Devonshire, cannot be kept 
* Forbes and Hanley, Brit. Mollusca, vol. ii. pp. 174, 175. 
