Chapter XI The Common Mussel
‘Travelling 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, backwards and forwards, 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 on’t. He is the owl of the sea, Minerva’s fish, the fish of wisdom.’ C. Lamb to B. Barton.
1 COMMON MUSSEL (Mytilus edulis)
a The foot
b The byssus
c c Muscles which regulate the action of the foot
2 THE MUSSEL CLOSED
3 THE BERÖE (Cydippe pileus)
4 THE FAN AMPHITRITE (A. ventilabrum)