Mussel

“ May not man cast his shell with as little offense as the mussel, and it, perchance, be a precious relic to be kept in the cabinets of the curious? May we not amuse ourselves with it, as when we count the layers of a shell, and apply it to our ear, to hear the history of its inhabitant in the swells of the sea, the pulsation of the life which once passed therein still faintly echoed? We confess that it was well done in Nature thus to let out her particles of lime to the mussel and coral, to receive them back again with such interest. ”

“ A giant sycamore in the middle cast a welcome shadow in the brilliant sunshine, and a fringe of willows [Pg 76] encircled it. Under these, near the water's edge, lay heaps of mussel shells,—white, pink, yellow, and purple,—the gift of the river to the land, and a reminder of the April freshet. The carriage wheels grated on the sand-bar, and as they caught sight of the treasures the children gave a cry of delight, for no shells from a tropic ocean are more beautiful in color than the common mussel shells of Kentucky rivers, and not infrequently a pearl is found within the tinted casket. ”

“ Another time he heard a mussel at the bottom of the sea crying:
"Here is a mussel that wishes to see you; come down to the bottom; row your kayak straight down through the water—this way!"
That mussel wanted to eat him. But he did not heed it. Then at last one day he saw an old woman, and rowed towards her, and came up to her. ”

“ In the natural way, a mussel settles between high and low water mark. When covered by the tide, he opens his doors, and angles for a living with his wonderful fishing-apparatus, for the spinsters of the sea are all born fishermen. ”

“ If they have answered well, they are bidden to lay aside their clothes, and to step into the mussel. If what they said be true, then the water begins to rise and gush over their heads; thrice does the water thus lift itself, and every one who has entered the mussel leaves it cured of every complaint. ”

“ Everyone felt sorry for the handsome young fellow, and left him alone on the shore. There he stood thinking and wondering what he could do, when all of a sudden he saw three fishes swimming along, and recognised them as the very same whose lives he had saved. The middle fish held a mussel in its mouth, which it laid at the young man’s feet, and when he picked it up and opened it, there was the golden ring inside. ”

“ Each one is wooded to the water's edge, which often the trees overspread with outstretched boughs. Entranced, we paddle on until we leave behind all trace of ocean swell, and if the tide be low so that old sea-soaked snags are seen upon the shore, and boulders thick with barnacles and varied coloured sea-weeds in shades of brown and red, and here and there great clusters of blue mussel shells, these all, if the water be calm and undisturbed by wind, are mirrored on the surface of the stream, forming pictures most rare and beautiful. ”

“ Let us apply this to the fresh-water mussels. The ancestors of these very helpless creatures lived, I have remarked, in the sea; and we may be pretty certain that their eggs are hatched out into what we call larvae, or imperfectly developed animals, precisely similar to the young, or larvae, of the marine mussel of our seas. Now, this larva has the form of a tiny little creature covered with 'swimming' hairs. ”

“ Charles Lamb discourseth about the mussel wisely: "Traveling is not good for us; we travel so seldom. How much more dignified leisure hath a mussel, glued to his impassable rocky limit, two inches square! He hears the tide roll over him backward and forward twice a day (as the Salisbury coach goes and returns in eight and forty hours) , but knows better than to take an outside place on the top of it. ”

“ But he had no explanation to offer until I showed him the mussel that I had found on the duck's tongue. Then his face lightened. "Mussels of that kind won't live in fresh water," he declared at a glance; and then the explanation of the birds' queer actions flashed into both our heads [236] at once: the eiders were simply drowning the mussels in order to make them loosen their grip and release the captive tongues.
This is undoubtedly the true explanation, as I made sure by testing the mussels in fresh water and by watching the birds more closely at their feeding. ”

“ 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 ”

“ A little boy came running over the rocks, his hands full of moss and shells. "See, mother, what I found!" He held them up. "Where did the shells come from, mother?" said the child. "How did they get way up here?"
She glanced overhead at the birds circling in wide flight above them.
"The gulls bring them," she said. "They fly over and drop them on the rocks to break open the shells; then they can eat them. See, here is a mussel—and a crab—and a sea-urchin—and this queer one that I don't know." ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The shanny and mussel, our correspondent writes, were taken by a fisherman who was gathering mussels for bait at Looe. Mussels are found in great numbers at the bottom of the harbor there, and the fishermen use a long-handled, four-pronged fork for catching them. A boat is moored over the spot on which the mussels are to be found, and the fork is employed to bring them from below into the boat. ”

“ The half of a newly opened mussel being laid gently upon the outer row of tentacula, these organs were rapidly set in motion, and the devoted mollusc engulphed in the course of a few seconds.
The colour of this interesting pet is pale brown. Its size, when fully expanded, no larger than a half-crown piece. It is not allowed to suffer any annoyance by being placed in companionship with the usual occupants of an aquarium, but dwells alone in a small tank, the water of which is changed regularly once a week. ”

“ Having caught hold tight, each clings like grim death, and as a result of the irritation set up in the poor fish's skin, swelling follows and soon grows up all round the young mussel, and makes him a prisoner. ”

“ The mussel or oyster tribe possess no head; the snails and their allies, as every one knows, not merely exhibit a well-developed head, but have that extremity provided with eyes, tentacles or feelers, and other addenda of the front region of the animal body. ”

“ On Crustacea.—A mussel, 3⁄8 in. long, has been found [174] living [78] under the carapace of the common shore-crab (Carcinus maenas) , and one case has been noticed [175] where two mussels, one of several months’ growth, the other smaller, well secured by their byssi, were found under the abdomen of the same species, in such a position as to force the appendages apart and askew. These, however, are not so much cases of parasitism as of involuntary habitat, the mussel no doubt having become involved in the branchiae and the abdomen of the crab in the larval form. ”

“ But the mussel or oyster becoming itself an unwilling modeller, agglutinates its juice into three dimensions, and the fact of the surface being now geometrically gradated, together with the savage instinct of attributing value to what is difficult to obtain, make the little boss so precious in men's sight that wise eagerness of search for the kingdom of heaven can be likened to their eagerness of search for it ”

“ The material—carbonate of lime—is extracted from the clear sea-water by a simple process in the life of the animal. Just as our food goes to form blood and bone, muscle and sinew, so does the food of the little spinner go to form his delicate tissues and his hard shelly house. The mussel-house is as much a part of the mussel’s life as our homes are part of our lives, and the processes of building are not so very different either; both are simple, both are mysterious.
To watch this little spinner make his thread is very interesting. ”

“ About the sloping ledges of low-lying rock, especially those which are covered with young mussels, so closely that between their blue-black shells, packed and tied together with byssus-threads, you can scarcely thrust a penknife, we very commonly see slender Worms of a vivid grass-green hue gliding in and out. ”

“ 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.) ”

“ Perhaps the simplest plan to adopt is to cut open a mussel and throw it into the tank. A considerable deal of amusement, moreover, is often to be obtained by watching the fishes engaged at such a meal. How they toss the valves of the Mytilus about, and snap at each other's tails! How vexed they become if by accident the shelly dish is turned topsy-turvy, and resists all their manœuvres to reverse it so as to get at the meat! The valves of a large mussel will sometimes be literally cleaned out by some half dozen Blennies in the course of an hour. ”

“ The general tint is dusky gray, with silvery lustre, paling to the belly; about half a dozen broad, black bars cross the body, from above downward, very distinct in the young, but becoming fainter with age. [253]
As might be inferred from the character of its teeth, the sheepshead resorts to mussel shoals, oyster bars, bridge piers, and old wrecks, where mussels and barnacles abound, and on which it feeds, pinching them from their beds with its strong incisor teeth and crushing them with its molars. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Across the river it is always deep, swift, and dark, though the sandbanks come in places near the surface, and in the shallows grow water-crowfoot, with waving green hair under water, and white stems above it. The clean and shining sand shelves down to the water's edge, and continues below the surface. Here are living shells, or shells with living fish in them. In the bright water lie hundreds of the shells of the fresh-water mussels, the bearers of pearls sometimes, and always lined with that of which pearls are made, the lustrous nacre. ”

“ The bed of the seas is alive with polypes, crabs, star-fishes, and with sand-numerous shell-animalcules. The rugged face of rocks is scarred by the silent boring of soft creatures; and blackened with countless mussels, barnacles, and limpets. ”

“ 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. ”