The contested nature of the mussel: sustenance, commerce, and contagion

“ He knew that the flavor of mussels was much more delicate than that of clams or lobsters, and that by many connoisseurs these, when good and fresh, were ranked next to oysters. This discovery, therefore, gave him great joy, and he filled his pan, which he had carried down, and took them back to the shore. He also took an armful of sea-weed, and, reaching his camping-place, he threw the mussels in a hollow place in the sand, placing the sea-weed around them. ”

“ The only course left them was to endure the cold, wait as patiently as might be, in the hope of some ship passing within hail, and to keep up what little life remained in them by chewing sea-weed, and seeking and devouring the mussels, which fortunately were to be found in great abundance on the rocks. After a time, however, they grew so weak as to be only just able to crawl out of the place they had made to lie down in, and every day the effort to gather their scanty nourishment grew harder. ”

“ The proprietors, therefore, employ women and children to pick them off at low tide. Not only are mussels largely used as bait, but they are a favorite food of the poor, and are sold in large quantities in the streets of the large towns of England—Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, etc. They are, in fact, 'the poor man's oyster.' So much, indeed, are mussels used as food, that a proposition was more than once seriously made to us by the fishermen that it should be illegal to use mussels for human food. ”

“ The sea mussel is scarcely inferior in commercial value to the oyster. In 1873 the value of mussels exported from Antwerp alone to Paris to be used as human food was £280,000. In Britain their chief consumption is in the deep-sea line fishery, where they are held to be the most effective of all baits. Twenty-eight boats engaged in haddock-fishing at Eyemouth used between October 1882 and May 1883 920 tons of mussels (about 47,000,000 individuals) , costing nearly £1800 to the fishermen, about one-half of which sum was expended on the carriage of the mussels. ”

“ The oysters had been taken from a bed near the outlet of a drain from a public water closet. Both oysters and mussels may harbor the typhoid bacillus, and may act as carriers of this germ to man.
There should be most stringent police regulations against the sale of all kinds of mollusks, and all fish as well, taken from filthy waters. Certainly one should avoid shellfish from impure waters, and it is not too much to insist that those offered for food should be washed in clean water. All forms of clam and oyster broth should be avoided when it has stood even for a few hours at summer heat. ”

“ What aggravates the matter is that oysters have what Professor Kellogg calls "wonderfully efficient mechanisms for straining dangerous organisms out of the water." "Several gallons of water every day pass through the gills of every full-grown oyster or clam, and every solid particle is removed from it and remains in the body." "It is thus plain that even if relatively few in the water, the chances are that a dangerous number of disease organisms will be strained out of it by these shell-fish." ”

“ Only a part of the fish is used for food, as there is a general belief that a portion is poisonous, like the head of a lobster. Mourt's relation of the landing of the pilgrims at Cape Cod says they found "great mussels, and very fat and full of sea-pearle, but we could not eat them, for they made us all sicke that did eat, as well saylers as passengers." As they are only found on the beach after an easterly storm, they become well filled with sand, and require thorough cleansing before cooking, while those taken from the water near the shore are better, because free from sand. ”

“ Sometimes, however, mussels do a great deal of harm, for they will get into an oyster-bed and fasten themselves down upon the shells of the oysters. Their byssus threads then form a kind of thick mat, which collects and holds the mud that is brought up by the tide every time that it rises; and this very soon covers the oysters entirely up, and smothers them to death.
Mussels do not remain fastened down in one place for the whole of their lives, however, as oysters do. They can crawl about quite easily whenever they like. ”

“ The reason of the penalty for destroying the cultch is that the ouse then will increase, and mussels and cockles will breed there and destroy the oysters, because they have no convenience for depositing their spat. Hence, mud and sea-weeds are extremely injurious to the "breedy creatures'" propagation and increase; for no less than starfish, cockles, and mussels, other enemies amongst shellfish and crustaceous animals, particularly crabs and scollops, eagerly devour the oyster, when they can capture it. ”

“ Cover them with a thin layer of damp kelp and put in the potatoes. Another layer of sea-weed, then the roasting-ears. After that come the fish, wrapped in paper. Then the mussels, clams or anything else you want. When you get them all in, cover the whole thing with a lot of heavy kelp and batten it down with a big piece of canvas. The whole trick is knowing just when to open the oven. Nothing can burn so it's better to leave it too long than to try to hurry things."
Gregory took the tin-plate, piled high with its smoking delicacies, and leisurely freed a succulent mussel from its shell. ”

“ They make a heap of wet sand upon the reeds, put a few stones on it, and build their fire on the stones, just as if they had been on shore. After remaining until they have procured a large stock of mussels, they pole themselves ashore, and in all probability have to spend several hours in cooking the mussels for the men. The mussels are usually eaten with the bulrush root. ”

“ To gather these is the work of the women, while the men employ themselves in fishing or in the chase of the wild hog. The species of shell-fish most common are the murex tribulus, trochus telescopium, cypraea caurica, and mussels. They are dexterous in capturing other fish with their darts, which they strike down upon the finny prey, either from their rafts, or by wading up to their knees in the water. They also take fish by torchlight,—that is, by kindling dry grass, the blaze of which attracts certain species into the shallow water, where the fishers stand in wait for them. ”

“ They watch the girls as they stride past with mighty Tufa-stones on their well-poised heads, like the Caryatides of the Erechtheum; they watch the Marina fishermen bringing up for sale in baskets the night's haul of golden Triglie and great Scurmi, of bright-coloured mussels from some rocky reef, or perhaps a coral-spun old Roman amphora dragged up by the deep Palamido nets from out of its thousand-years-old hiding-place at the bottom of the sea. ”

“ We need not speak of the cartloads of oysters thrown into the sea to prevent a dainty, hitherto reserved for the rich, from becoming a food for the people. We need not speak of the thousand and one luxuries—stuffs, foods, etc., etc.—treated after the same fashion as the oysters. ”

“ If these mussel-bearing fish can be obtained by farmers having private fish ponds, the ponds can be drained each year and the mussels gathered, thus adding considerably to the owner's income, and also keeping up the pearl button industry, in addition to the food supply which he gains from the fish. ”

“ There are about four hundred species of Mussels found in the Mississippi River and its tributaries, but comparatively few are now utilized in or are adapted to button-making. We naturally find complaints as to the treatment of the "golden goose." "Not the least injurious feature of the fishery is the gathering of small Mussels for market, and the incidental destruction of small shells that are not utilized, but left on the banks or the ice to die." Mussels have many perils to surmount. ”

“ The trade in them is successfully cultivated, and affords a means of support to hundreds of industrious and deserving men.
From the learned author of the "Rambles of a Naturalist" we learn that at the village of Esnandes, on the coast of France, the Mussel trade, commenced [185] about eight hundred years ago, has assumed a gigantic extent. Both here and at the neighbouring villages of Charron, Marsilly, Mussels are bred in an ingenious and systematic manner. At the level of the lowest tide short piles or stakes are driven into the mud, in a series of rows about a yard apart. ”

“ The young Mussels spread themselves all round the pockets, fixing themselves by means of those filaments which naturalists designate by the name of byssus. In proportion as they grow and become crowded together [186] within the pockets, they are cleared out and distributed over other poles lying somewhat nearer to the shore, whilst the full-grown Mussels which are fit for sale are planted on the bouchots nearest the shore. ”

“ In Germany the Elster River pearl mussel beds and in France the marine mussel and oyster fisheries have been saved and developed by proper legislation and governmental supervision. In this country the business of oyster propagation and farming has been profitably established under such well-developed laws as those of Connecticut. ”

“ It is the unwillingness of individuals to make voluntary sacrifices, independently, for the good of the mussel beds that makes legislation of any kind necessary. There is a demand for legislative action only because, in the end, the welfare of all parties concerned is dependent upon the promotion of abundant growth of mussels. ”

“ Hitherto the most general and fatal danger to oyster-beds has been the ungoverned extravagance of irresponsible fishers who seek to harvest [254] in the present regardless of the future, but these are gradually being made amenable to restrictive laws as authorities awake to the value of the industry. A greater danger which threatens the unio of American streams, is the pollution of the water by the discharge of the refuse of factories and the sewage of cities into them. A mussel bed will recover in time when denuded by fishers, but sewage and poison kills it out entirely. ”

“ Let it be repeated that a high price to the fishermen is desirable, but in the present condition they reap no benefit. A higher price for a disproportionately smaller product brings no added profit. None are so directly interested in the conservation of mussels as the fishermen themselves.
Of what advantage is it to the fishermen of the Wabash River, or to the State of Indiana, that shells are now more valuable, when a river that once supported a really important shelling industry is [5] now practically depleted? ”

“ This action preserves the health of the poor mollusc by ærating the water which passes over his respiratory organs.
That some such wonderful contrivance is adopted, for conveying food within the valves, too, is evident, [188] when we consider that the Mussel is always affixed to some foreign substance, that it cannot hunt after prey, and therefore can subsist only upon whatever nutritious particles may be contained in the element in which it lives. These consist of minute animalculæ, principally crustacea, which are drawn within the shell by powerful currents. ”

“ Scattered among the monsters, the rifle-ranges, and the games of skill were little booths where one could buy drink and victuals. There was one vendor, for instance, who always did a roaring trade by selling, for two sous, as many raw mussels as any one could eat without coughing. Torn between his belief in the medicinal qualities of shellfish and his fear of typhoid fever, my Uncle Spencer hesitated whether he ought to allow me to spend my penny. In the end he gave his leave. (“It’s the phosphorus, you know.”) I put down my copper, took my mussel, bit, swallowed, and violently coughed. ”

“ Indeed, if the Australians devoured nothing more objectionable, their system of diet would almost defy reproof. But, alas! I find upon their bills of fare—grubs, raw and roasted, snakes, lizards, rats, mice, and weazels. The mussel is deeply declined by some of the tribes, in consequence of an opinion prevailing that the fish in question is the especial property of sorcerers, whose amiable propensity it is to destroy mankind by means of mussels. If all the world held the same opinion, I have no doubt of great profit therefrom resulting. ”

“ While the oyster remains eternally riveted to its rock, until torn from it by violence, the mussel moves about, and in this motion the byssus is an active agent. The mussel attaches its byssus to some fixed object, and drawing upon it, as upon a line, the shell is displaced. The house is drawn onwards; the animal is in motion. It takes no great strides, but a fraction of an inch satisfies its desires; it is, however, an advance upon the oyster, and a lesson in mechanics. The mussel stretches out its foot, and, at the point chosen, it hooks on a hair of the byssus ”

“ Below a certain level these are crowded out by the mussels which grow in such dense accumulations that they cling not only to the rock but to one another and to stubby brown seaweed till they are like nothing so much as pods of bees swarming about their queen. ”

“ Droughts are also liable to expose Mussel-beds, and cause much destruction. However, pollution of the water by refuse from cities and manufacturing establishments is perhaps the most serious menace to the Mussel-beds, next to the operations of the fishermen. ”