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The Christian woman or child, it will be observed, who was to form the corpus vile of these ingenious experiments, was not considered, except, indeed, as the fisherman considers the mussel or the sand-worm on his hook. Under an arch by themselves, and not far from the great gateway where the guards, their lances in hand, could be seen pacing up and down, sat two women.
In the spring when the snow vanishes and the lake ice begins to melt, the first open spot is always used as a feeding-place, where they dive from the edge of the ice and in a minute or less reappear with a mussel or a mouthful of pontederia or water-lily leaves, climb back on to the ice and sit up to nibble their food, handling it very much like squirrels or marmots.
Straight an oyster-catcher thrust in his bill to eat the mussel; which promptly snapped the shell to and held the bird fast. 'If it doesn't rain today or tomorrow, said the oyster-catcher, 'there'll be a dead mussel here. 'And if you don't get out of this by today or tomorrow, said the mussel, 'there'll be a dead oyster-catcher. Meanwhile up came a fisherman and carried them both off.
For example, take the following cases, which I extract, with needful simplifications, from Dr. Woodward. 'In June 1850, a living pond mussel, which had been more than a year out of water, was sent to Mr. Gray, from Australia. The big pond snails of the tropics have been found alive in logs of mahogany imported from Honduras; and M. Caillaud carried some from Egypt to Paris, packed in sawdust.
On the banks a number of natives have been encamped; round about their fires were large quantities of the shells of the fresh-water mussel, the fish from which they had been eating: I should think this a very good proof of the water being permanent. After finishing the survey I followed the creek up for a number of miles in search of more water, but could find none.
"Bully!" cried Steve, looking almost as happy as he did on that never-to-be-forgotten day when they found their first lovely pearl in a mussel taken from the Big Sunflower River. "A b-b-bear!" exclaimed Toby. "L-l-let me s-s-see." All of them were soon eagerly examining the marks so plainly described in the light snow.
The celery was a treat indeed, and the scurvy grass proved of incalculable benefit in restoring those of our men who had shown symptoms of disease. In a very short time we had not a single person on the sick-list. We had also plenty of other kinds of fresh provisions, among which may be mentioned a species of shellfish resembling the mussel in shape, but with the taste of an oyster.
The vase was her home and her garden, and she was busy many hours a day in keeping it in order and making it more and more beautiful. It was wonderful how much she found to do. In some places, where the red and green weeds grew too thick, she pruned them with a little knife that Oscar had given her, made out of a piece of a mussel shell, and cut away the pieces that were decayed.
The interior of this species of mussel is lined with a beautiful transparent material called mother-of-pearl, which is gathered and sent by the ton to Europe for delicate ornamental purposes, especially for inlaid work. Sometimes one of these pearl oysters will contain two or three valuable pearls, then a score or more may be opened containing none.
We can suppose a tribe of Indians or Blacks not far from Gombroon, to have been under the rule of a mussel man Sultan, and conquered or subverted by a Tartar expedition from Touran, or the north of Persia: But this remains a mere hypothetical explanation. For this paragraph, the editor is indebted to Mr Pinkerton, Mod. Geog.
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