The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1892-07-27
he sILKWoRMs OF THE OCEAN.
MoIIuslxs Which Weave Threads That Are
Most Wonderful to Mankind.

"The mussel may well be called the
spinner of the sea-" said a concholo-
gist to Washington Star writer. st
makes and weaves its silken threads
very much as the spider does. An
important part of its anatomy is a
slender and very muscular foot of tri-
angular shape, under and behind
which is gland that secretes a viscid
and half-liquid fluid. This fluid runs
into groove in the foot, where it
quickly sets and becomes firm
thread. The thread is pulled out by
the withdrawing of the foot another
thread is formed, and so on until the
mussel has tied itself securely by ever
so many strong cords.
"lt is very interesting to see how
the mussel manages to climb up the
perpendicular sides of rocks or piles
by means of these threads, which are
stretched out and attached by the
foot, one after another, in the direc-
ton in which the animal wishes to
climb, each one being fastened little
higher up than the last. Thus the
heavy shell is drawn up gradually in
much the same manner as that en-
ployed by some spiders when suspend
ing an unusually large victim. You
would hardly imagine that so small a
creature could be helpful servant to
man, and yet the spinning and weav~
ing of this humble mollusk have been
turned to most valuable account. At
the town of Bideford, in Devonshire, is
long bridge of twenty-four arches.
crossing the Torridge river. The tides
flow with such swiftness at this bridge
that no mortar will hold the masonry
of the arches. But the corporation of
the town keeps boats for the purpose
of bringing mussels from distance,
which are applied to every interstice
of the stone work. The masonry is
entirely supported and held together
by the strong threads these biyalves
spin, and the law makes it crime,
punishable by transportation, to re-
move any of them.
Having spent the first few days OF
their existence as free-swimming ami
mails, after being Matched from the
eggs, mussels usually fasten them
| selves together and to a common OBJ
ject, SO as to form large clusters
Thus, by means of multiplied system
| of ropes, they secure so firm an anchor.
age as to be able to resist the most
violent storms. However, they car
let go when they want to, and creer
about until they find better resting
| place. Their closely-knitted colonies
! do much to prevent wear and tear by
the waves on certain portions of The
sea coast. Like oysters, they enter
tain small parasitic crabs, which make
their homes in the shells of the living
mollusks. These little crustaceaI
boarders are of a different species
from the oyster crabs. Young seal
depend largely for food upop the biz
arctic mussels, which are plentiful a
far north as Point Barrow, in the Arc
tic ocean. On the coast of Alaska anC
as far south as Puget sound musseI
constitute the only molluscan supply
there being no oysters and very few
CLAIMS in that region, and the nativ
women and children are CONSTANT,
gathering them.
"The Alaskan method of cookin,
mussels is to boil them. A bunch Q
ten, twenty, or perhaps forty pound
weight is put into pot and when th
shells cape the water is poured off, tn
people gathering around and piclIin,
out the meat with their fingers. Some
times the bivalves are roasted also
They are very little priced as an art
Gle of diet on the Atlantic coast, partl
because such a wealth of oysters an
CLAIMS is at hand, but the aborigina
Indians were very fond of them an
consumed them in great quantities, a
is proved by the mounds of shells CON
posing the debris of ancient feasts
which remain to this day. The Dela
wares, and doubtless other tribes, en-
ployed mussel shells, the edges {
| which were sharpened on the grit
rock, for pincers to pull out thei
boards with.
@Mussels are much used abroad q
food. They are bred in France in in
closures of sea water, frames and hang
ing ropes being submerged for then
to attach themselves to. At interval
these ropes or frames are hauled III
and made to yield their crop. For tn,
same purpose parks as they ar
called, are planted in the shadows o
the North Sea. Trees, from which al
but the larger branches have been cut
are stuck into the bottom at such
distance from shore that the uppe
portions of them shall be laid bare a
low water After four or five year
they are raised, stripped, and replaced
with others. In the Bay of Keil, Ger
many, 1000 tons of mussels are raiset
in a similar fashion yearly. Mussel
are propagated in the Adriatic OIL
ropes extended between poles rammet
into the ground. The ropes are stripped
once in eight months. The musse
beds of Great Britain are worth hun
dreds of thousands of dollars annually
''The mollusk, which has been poet
ically called the 'silkworm of the sea,
is a mussel of the Mediterranean
known to science as the 'pinna' |
spins kind of thread so beautiful an,
fine that in Sicily the material i
woven into gloves and stockings
These articles are very costly, an
have not been thought unworthy pres