Mussel shell

“ Beads made of pieces of fresh-water and marine shells are found among the other remains. Sometimes pieces are cut from the mussel-shell, rubbed round, and then a hole bored. Sometimes specimens of Melania or Paludina holes bored near the aperture, and were then used as beads. The beads made of marine shells show that some system of barter or commerce existed with the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf. Quantities of shells, of species of the genus Unio, "fresh-water oysters," are found. They go to show that shell-fish formed an article of diet of the race. ”

“ As a ship by its cable, so commonly the Mussel, by its bissus or beard, is made fast to its anchorage-ground, be it pebbly or sandy beach, or jutting rock. Sometimes, however, the mollusk travels, and this is how it manages to do so; it has a stout fleshy foot, in shape something like that of a chubby child, and this it can advance about two inches beyond the edge of the shell, then fixing the point of it to a piece of rock or any other body, and contracting it, the shell is drawn onward, and sure, though slow, progress is made in any desired direction. ”

“ The mealy masses of dry sand beyond the river's lip are stuffed with these mussel shells. They lie all ways up, endways, sideways, on their faces, on their backs. The pearl lining shines through the sand, and the mussels gleam like silver spoons under the water. They crack and crunch beneath your feet as you step across to search the mass for the smaller and rarer shells. ”

“ By following these with the eye, the mussel may often be seen in a foot or two of water—sometimes open, but more generally closed. The groove in the sand is caused by the keel of the shell as the creature moves.
There are hundreds of these tracks; the majority appear to run from shallow to deep water, but there are others crossing and showing where the mussel has travelled. One may occasionally be seen in the act of moving itself, and making the groove in the sand. But they seem as a rule to move most at night, and to approach the shore closest in the darkness. In the deep water they are safe ”

“ When the bark is heated, it can be drawn into many shapes without breaking it or causing it to crack.
The Mussel-shell.
The mussel-shell—U-born—is much used by the natives for the purpose of scraping and preparing skins for bags, opossum rugs, &c. It is a valuable tool. It is used ordinarily as it is taken from the living animal; but if a favorite and well-shaped shell becomes a little blunted by use, it is sharpened with a stone. ”

“ The shell is shaped something like that of a whelk, but is very smooth and porcelain-like, and is generally white, ornamented with several coloured bands. It is, however, one of the most variable of shells, differing not only in colour but in form. It always inhabits the belt of the shore between tide-marks, and preys upon other Molluscs, such as the mussel and periwinkle, literally licking them to pieces with its long riband tongue. ”

“ The smooth and perfect mussel shell rarely produces a pearl, the crooked and distorted shell seldom wants one.
I shall here mention a very elegant sort of manufactory, with which I cannot positively say the ancients were acquainted, which is fineering, or inlaying with the inside of the shell called mother-of-pearl, known to the dealers in trinkets all over Europe, and in particular brought to great perfection at Jerusalem. That of Peninim, though the most beautiful, is too fragil and thin to be employed in large pieces. ”

“ CONTENTS OF SHELL-MOUND.
The third shell in order, in this bank of shells, is the mussel, and then the cockle,—all edible. “There is evidence enough in these mounds,” says Dr. Gordon, “to show that they have been the work of man, and not the effect of any tidal current, or any other natural cause. The shell-fish which the remains represent are, with scarcely an exception, edible, and continue to be eaten to this day. In all deposits by the sea, there is abundance of species that have ever been rejected as food. The shells are full-grown, or adult shells. ”

“ At the opposite end of the shell from these openings, or the forward end, a whitish, fleshy mass will be seen protruding. This is called the foot, and corresponds to the foot or creeping disk in the snails. By means of this foot the mussel crawls through the sand.
The mouth is above the foot, and always concealed within the shell. ”

“ Thus the creature is completely masked both from the game it hunts and its own carnivorous foes. The edible mussel spins strong threads from its byssus gland firmly attaching the bluish, or sometimes brownish, shell to the rock or to another mussel. ”

“ Mussels are sometimes measured in length or width or height, but on account of the irregular form of mussel shells these dimensions are not always interpreted in the same way. In testing the blank-making capacity of a shell, commercial men sometimes measure the "width on the face" ”

“ What it does there nobody seems quite to know. It does not appear to injure the animal to whom the shell belongs, although it is very fond of the flesh of mussels, and if it finds one of those creatures lying dead will certainly devour it. Perhaps it only creeps inside its shell for the sake of safety. At any rate, it is a very timid little crab, and if you open a mussel and find a pea crab lying hidden inside it, it will tuck up all its legs quite close to its little round body and lie perfectly still for several minutes in the hope that you will think that it is dead. ”

“ That higher forms of life than the sea-squirt and insect race are by no means exempt from the influence of retrogressive change is an observation worth noting at the close of our researches. We know, for instance, of lowly structures in shell-fish life appearing in the midst of highly organized frames. A mussel, a cockle, or an oyster, whose early development runs in parallel lines to that of the snail and whelk class, is nevertheless esteemed less highly organized than the latter. ”

“ 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. ”

“ This phenomenon must be caused, I should suppose, by some sudden fright compelling the mollusc to close its shell with such rapidity as to prevent a proper supply of water being taken in. Having only air to exist upon, the animal then lingers on until its branchiæ become dried up, and all moisture exhausted. In this state the Mussel opens its shell with a deep bursting sigh, and sinks to the bottom—dead. ”

“ It is as large as a man's fist and deep enough for a drinking cup. I saw one in a canoe where it may have been used as a boat bailer. It is also said to be used by the natives as food. The large Chilian mussel [15] is abundant and seems to be the principal item in the food supply of the natives. We found it excellent eating and obtained specimens fully seven inches long. The handsomest sea shell of the straits is Voluta Magellanica, which reaches a length equal to that of the large mussel. ”

“ Hence it is more than probable that the mussel, headless and inclosed in its shell and possessing relatively little interest in the affairs of the outer world, is an example of a degenerated type of mollusks. ”

“ 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 ”

“ They are found in Scotland, Denmark, the east and west coasts of North America, Brazil, Tierra del Fuego, Australia and New Zealand, and are sometimes several hundred yards in length. They are invariably composed of the edible shells of the adjacent coast, mixed with bones of Mammals, birds, and fish. From their great size, it is believed that many of them must have taken centuries to form.
Pre-eminent among existing shell-fish industries stands the cultivation of the oyster and the mussel, a more detailed account of which may prove interesting. ”

“ The lowest, a foot in thickness, consisted of the shells of the clam, whelk, and mussel, all much decomposed, and mixed with earth. Above this was a layer of dark vegetable mould, mixed with earth and gravel, and from six to eight inches in thickness. Above this was a second layer of shells, of the same species as those just mentioned, but in a much better state of preservation, and with less intermixture of earth; this deposit was in turn covered by another layer of earth and mould, and these now sustain a growth of forest trees, but none of them of large size. ”

“ In this way, too, some members of the genus solen force their way through the sand; while those called Tellina spring to a considerable distance, by first folding the foot into a small compass, and then suddenly expanding it, closing the shell at the same time with a loud snap; so that you see these sober-looking mollusks are sometimes frolicksome fellows; this is an enforcement of the lesson, judge not by appearances.
Some of the species, both of the Mussel and Cockle families, [54] have very beautiful shells. ”

“ This testier, in which each shell has its opening, is furnished with a naked cushion, dentate, spinous, or protected by an operculum or lid, and presents itself under every variety of form. It is sometimes an assemblage of branching tubes, occasionally a rounded mass of spongy appearance, and now it presents itself as a flat lamelliform inarticulated expansion. In some of the marine species the shell of the mussel is covered as with a fine lace.
It is a remarkable fact that these cells are not always inert. They seem to enjoy the power of motion. ”

“ The large mussel is very toothsome. Like the oyster and clam, it was dried for winter use by the Indians.
The giant or hen clam-shell, found in every buttery within fifty miles of the coast, was the Indian's garden hoe. After a storm many clams would be cast up on the beaches, which the natives, taking out of the shells, carried home in baskets. A large shell will hold a plentiful draught of water, and is unequaled for a milk-skimmer. ”

“ Six of these, made from Unionidæ, mostly from the Unio ovatus, were obtained from one of the Bowling mounds near Nashville, Tenn.; others crumbled on being handled and were lost. Several others were obtained in the same region. [26] Two more were found in an earthen vessel between two skeletons, in one of the Lindsley mounds at Lebanon, sixty miles east of Nashville. [27]
In a stone-cist mound on the Big Harpeth River, Prof. Joseph Jones found "a few large fresh-water mussel-shells, which were much altered by time. ”

“ Here you will find two sturdy men, called mussel bailiffs, supplied with rifles and ammunition, and as many Newfoundland dogs as assistants, watching the mussel scalps, or beds, to preserve them from the people in the surrounding parishes of Dornoch, Rogart, and Golspie, and keep them, to supply the fishermen, on the opposite side of the Moray Firth, with bait, who come there every year and take away thousands of tons of this nutritive shell-fish, when many hundreds of the people would be thankful for a diet per day of them, to pacify the cravings of nature. ”

“ The animal lives—as may be seen on looking at a tub of oysters as they lie amid their native element—with the shell unclosed for purposes of nutrition and breathing. If, however, we tap the living oyster or mussel ever so lightly, we find the shell to close with a snap that renders the persuasion of the oyster-knife necessary for its forcible unclosure. ”

“ Molluscs.—Molluscs are soft-bodied animals, in most cases protected by a hard, external shell, but they differ essentially from crustaceans and all other arthropods in not being segmented, and in not possessing jointed limbs. Familiar and instructive examples of two classes of the group are found in the fresh-water mussel and the garden snail.
The fresh-water mussel (Fig. 233) is to be found in streams, along the bed of which it ploughs its way by means of a muscular [Pg 381] foot (ft.) ”

“ The bed of this lake had been full of the freshwater mussel; and under a canoe (which I took away in the carts) were several large crayfish dead in their holes. Dry and parched as the bed of the lake then was, the natives found nevertheless live freshwater mussels by digging to a substratum of sand. I understood that they also find this shell alive in the same manner, in the dry bed of the Lachlan.
(*Footnote. See Volume 1.)
(**Footnote. The third species of Psoralea before referred to (March 19th) . P. cinerea, Lindley manuscripts ”

“ The lamellibranchiate bivalve shells of the British Carboniferous system, so far as yet discovered, number about 300 - 104 - species, belonging to genera some of which are still familiar to us. There were the pectens or scallops, the pinnas with their beards of byssus, the cardiums or cockles, the mytili and modiolæ or mussels, all sea-shells. Then among the fresh-water bivalves we can detect several species of the unio or river mussel, that perhaps displayed valves as silvery in their lining as those of our own pearl-mussels. ”