Pvn H,i I'UitlS

MYTILUS. 107
out of water. Young shells of M. edulis are coated with
short bristly hairs, and resemble in shape those of M.
modiolus. They grow very rapidly. According
to Mr.
are left for a week
Clark, if the fishermen's lobster-pots
or two in the autumn, they will be covered with mussels
more than half an inch long. M. Bouchard-Chan-
tereaux has often watched this mollusk in the act of
spinning its byssus. He says that when put into a
vessel of sea-water, it first creeps along the bottom by
means of its foot and tries to ascend the side. After a
while it deposits from the end of its foot a speck of white
transparent matter, which spreads out and immediately
hardens like china-cement. This plate serves as a base
of attachment ; and from the centre of it the mussel
secretes very slowly and by a backward movement a
gluey thread, repeating this process ten or twelve times
in a circular direction. The threads become horncolour
in from twenty-four to thirty hours after being spun.
It is said to have the power of contracting its byssus at
will ; but I should be inclined to doubt it. The mussel
is on the whole a respectable and stay-at-home cha-
racter, seldom leaving its place of abode unless it has
been dislodged by an unusually boisterous wave or by
the equally rude and violent hands of man. Charles
Lamb speaks of its t(
dignified leisure," while traversing
the circuit of two inches square, within which it swings
by
the aid of its elastic cables. When confined in a
prison called an aquarium, it appears
to be more rest-
less than in its native haunts, perhaps trying to escape
from the unaccustomed quarters in which it finds itself,
and in vain awaiting the welcome refluence of the
tide. It may then be observed making occasional jour-
neys from one part to another, and leaving at every
stage or halting-place a bundle of filaments attached to