The Arizona sentinel., 1892-09-10
SUBMARINE SILKWORMS.
Monusks Which Weave Wonder
 ful Threads of Silk.
An Interesting Chapter on the Habits and Uses of Strange Submarine Cres- lures Queer Methods of
 Propagating Mussels.

1.-The muSSel may well be called the spinner of the sea-" said conchologist to a Washington Star writer. ''It
 makes and weaves its sillzen threads
 very much as the spider does. An i'm portant part of it's anatomy is a slender and very muscular foot of triangular shape, under and be- hind 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 with drawing of the foot, another thread is formed, and so on until the mussel has tied itself securely by ever so many strong cords.
 ''It is very interesting to see how the mussel manages to climb up the perpen- dicular sides of rocks or piles by means of these threads, which are stretched out and attached by the foot, one after another, in the direction in which the animal wishes to climb, each one being fastened little higher up than the last. Thus the heavy shell is drawn up grad ually in much the same manner as that employed by some spiders when sus- pending an unusually large victim. You would hardly imagine that so small a creature could be helpful servant to man, and yet the spinning and weaving of this humble mollusk have been turned to most valuable account. At the town of Bideford, in Devonshire, is a long bridge of twentY-four arches, crossing the Torridge river. The tides L l. l-s that no mortar will hold the masonry of the arches. But the corporation of the town keeps boats for the purpose of bringing nussels 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 bivalves spin, and the law makes it a crime, punishable by transportation, to remove any of them.
 Having spent the first few days of their existence as free-swimming ami mals, after being matched from the eggs, mussels usually fasten themselves together and to common object, so as to form large clusters. Thus, by means of multiplied system of ropes, they secure so firm an anchorage as to be able to resist the most violent stormsl However, they can let go when they want to, and creep 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 entertain small parasitic crabs, which make their homes in the shells of the living molluskS. These little crusta- cean boarders are of different species from the oyster crabs. Young seals de- pend largely for food upon the big arc tic mussels, which are plentiful as far north as Point Barrow, in the Arctic ocean. On the coast of Alaska and as far south as Puget sound mussels con- stitute the only molluscan supply, there being no oysters and very few clans in that region, and the native women and children are constantly gathering them.
 ''The Alaskan method of cooking mussels is to boil them. A bunch of ten, twenty, or perhaps forty pounds weight is put into pot and when the shells gape the water is poured of, the people gathering around and picking out the meat with their fingers. Some times the bivalves are roasted also. They are very little prized as an article of diet on the Atlantic coast, partly be- cause such wealth of oysters and clans is at hand, but the aboriginal In- dians were very fond of them and con- stunned them in great quantities, as is proved by the mounds of shells compos- ing the debris of ancient feasts, which remain to this day. The Delawares, and doubtless other tribes, employed mussel shells, the edges of which were sharp ened on the gritty rock, for pincers to pull out their boards with.
 ''Mussels are much used abroad as food. They are bred in France in in- closures of sea water, frames and hang ing ropes being submerged for them to attach themselves to. At intervals these ropes or frames are hauled up and made to yield their crop. For the same purpose parks, as 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 distance AAOAh oAAOAO O4AdO CA1C upper pOIGlOuS OI l them shall be laid bare at lower water. After four or five years they are raised, stripped and replaced with others. In the bay of Keil, Germany, one thousand tons of mussels are raised in a similar fashion yearly. Mussels are propagated in the Adriatic on ropes extended be- tween poles rammed into the ground. The ropes are stripped once in eight 1 The mussel beds of Great | Britain are worth hundreds of thou sands of dollars annually.
 "The mollusk, which has been poetic | ally called the 'silkworm of the sea- is l a mussel of the Mediterranean, known to science as the pima It spins kind | of thread so beautiful and fine that in Sicily the material is woven into gloves 1 and stockings. These articles are very costly, and have not been thought un- worthy presents for pope"
 An English Parrot Story.
 The following parrot story comes from London: A well-known bird fancier