“Next morning his siphons were stretched out some six inches in length. * * * I never thought before that there was any particular beauty to the siphons of a clam, but for this red-lined one my opinions quickly changed. Imagine two tubes made of the finest pink and white silk, stretched over delicate hoops arranged at regular intervals; then think of them as endowed with life, and waving with a graceful motion through the water, and you will have a faint idea of their exquisite texture and elegant appearance.” To those readers who live in the West, away from the ocean, the Unio, or freshwater mussel, is more or less familiar. What child in Chicago has not played on the sands of Lake Michigan and scooped up the little grains with the broken half of a clam shell? Or who, wading in the muddy water of Lake Calumet, has not wondered what the curious little hollow, fringed objects were which protruded from the surface of the mud? These latter were the siphons of the clam and if you were to dig under them a little way you would find the beautiful green-rayed shell of a river mussel. These are no less interesting than the marine shells already described and in beauty of ornamentation they frequently excel many of their salt-water relatives. Such excrescences as knobs, spines and rib-like undulations are common, while the colors of the interior range from pure silvery white through orange, pink and salmon to dark purple, and the rich, pearly iridescence rivals that of any of the marine shells. In many parts of the West mussels are collected by men in search of pearls, which are generally of an inferior quality, and thousands of shells are used annually in the manufacture of pearl buttons. One of the most familiar objects to the seaside visitor is the huge banks of sea-mussels (Mytilus) which line the shore at low water. The shells are generally dark-colored, our common mussel (Mytilus edulis) being frequently jet black, and are more or less wedge-shaped in form. They attach themselves to mud banks and shore vegetation by a strong byssus made up of stout, more or less silky threads. The mussels are of great value economically, thousands of bushels of the edible mussel (Mytilus edulis) being consumed annually in Europe. They are also used as bait, and millions of the mussels are thus used every year. Although considered a delicacy in parts of Great Britain and Europe, it has not yet been adopted as an article of diet in this country, the clam and quahaug taking its place.