Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1892-09-10
THE slLkwoRMs OF THE OCEAN
MoiIusks which Weave Threads That Ar
Most Wonderful to Mankind.

MoiIusks which Weave Threads That Ar
Most Wonderful to Mankind.
@The mussel may well be called th,
| spinner OF the sea" said a concholo
gist to q Washington Star writer. IL
| makes and weayes its silken thread,
| very much as the spider does. Al
important part Of It's anatomy is /,
slender and very muscular foot of tri-
angular shape, under and behind
which is a gland that secretes a yiscid
and balf-ljqnid fluid. This fluid runs
into a groove in the foot, where it
quickly sets and becomes a firm
thread. The thread Is pulled u 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.
alt is very interesting to see how
the mussel manages to climb up the
perpendicular sides of rocks or pile
| by means of these threads, which are
stretched out and attached by the
foot, n after another, in the direc-
ton in which the animal wishes to
climb, each one being fastened a 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 IN unusually large victim. You
would hardly imagine that so small a
creature could be a helpful servant 10
man, and yet the spinning and weay-
ing of this humble mOllusk have been
turned TO most valuable account. At
the town of Bideford, in Deyonshire, 10
a long bridge of tw~enty-iour 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 a distance,
which are applied to. every interstice
of the stone work The masonry is
entirely supported and held together
by the strong threads these biyalyes
spin, and the law makes it a 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 q multiplied system
of ropes, they secure 80 firm an anchor
age as to be able TO resist the most
violent storms, However. they can
let go when they want to, and creep
about until they find a better resting
place. Their closely-kuitted colonies
do much TO prevent YEA and tear 10y
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 crustacean
boarders are Of a different species
from the oyster crabs. Young seals
depend largely for food upon the big
urctic mussels, which are plentiful as
far north as Point Barrow, in the Arc
tic ocean. On the coast of Alaska and
as far south as Puget sound mussels
constitute the only molluscan supply.
there being no oysters and very few
CLAIMS in hat region, and the native
women and children are constantly
gathering them.
The Alaskan method Of cooking
HluSStAS - W DDll lutllls - bul4Cu VI
ten, twenty, or perhaps forty pounds
weight is put into a pot anil when the
shells cape the water is poured off. the
people gathering around and picking
out the meat with their fingers. Some
times the biyalyes are roasted also.
They are very little priced as an arti-
Gle of diet on the Atlantic coast, partly
because such a wealth of oysters and
clans is at hand, but the aboriginal
Indians were very fond Of them and
consumed them in great quantities. as
Is proved By the mounds Of shells COM
posing the debris of ancient feasts,
which remain To this day. The Deia-
wares, and doubtless other tribes, en-
ployed mussel shells, the. cages IL
which were s~harpened on the gritty
rock, for pincers to pull out their
boards with.
~Mussels are much used abroad as
food. They are bred in france Ia Ia.
closures of sea water. frames and hang
ng ropes being submerged for them
to attach themselves 10. At intervals
these ropes or frames are hauled up
and made TO yield their crop. For the
same purpose parks. A. they are
called. are planted in the shadows Of
the North Sea. Trees, from which all
but the larger branches have been cut,
are stuck into the bottom at such q
distance from shore that the upper
portions of them shall be laid bare at
low water. After four or five years
they are raised, stripped, and replaced
with others. In the Bay OF Keil. Ger
many, 1000 tons of mussels arc raised
in a similar fashion yearly. Mussels
are propagated in the Adriatic on
ropes extended between poles rammed
into the ground. The ropes are stripped
once in eight months. The mussel
beds of Great Britain are worth hum
dreds of thousands of dollars annually.
The mollask, which has been poet
ically called the 'silkworm of the sea-
is n mussel of the Mediterranean.
known TO science as the pima Ii
spins a kind of thread so beautiful and
fine that in Sicily the material is
woven into gloves and stockings.
These articles are very costly, and
have not been thought unworthy pres
anfa for a mana