. Shells and sea-life. Figure 28. to peel off from the older parts of the shell, show-ing the purple and white beneath. Mussels are sometimes gathered by men for food,and they make excellent bait for fishing. It some-times happens, however, that their flesh seems to bepoisonous to men, and this fact should make onecareful about eating too many, until they have beentested. At most times they have a delicious flavor. Besides the common mussel, there are severalothers which have similar habits. One of theselives in San Francisco Bay, and attaches itselfto the piles which support the wharves. Itss
. Shells and sea-life. Figure 28. to peel off from the older parts of the shell, show-ing the purple and white beneath. Mussels are sometimes gathered by men for food,and they make excellent bait for fishing. It some-times happens, however, that their flesh seems to bepoisonous to men, and this fact should make onecareful about eating too many, until they have beentested. At most times they have a delicious flavor. Besides the common mussel, there are severalothers which have similar habits. One of theselives in San Francisco Bay, and attaches itselfto the piles which support the wharves. Itsshells are small and smooth. Another kind isknown as the Horse-mussel. One of these is MUSSELS. 75. Figure 29. shown in Figure 28. The shell is thin and delicate,and you notice that the umbo, or shoulder, is notquite at one end, as in the true 29 shows the shape of anothersmall mussel, which sometimes lives un-der stones. Its shell is full of the oddest of the whole family ofmussels is the Pea-pod Shell, shown inFigure 30. This mussel is not contentwith fastening itself by threads, but it also boresa deep hole into the very rock, creeping inside asit grows, and leaving only a little opening for thewater to come and go. As the shell grows larger, the creature boresdeeper, and thus it passes its life safely, though how littleit knowsof what is
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectmollusk, bookyear1901
