A Footnote to Politics

In 1834, a naturalist interested in fresh-water shells declared:

The lover of the grand and the beautiful in natural scenery, as well as the student in science, will here find abundant sources of interest. He will be delighted with a noble river, whose beautiful and numerous islands are clothed with gigantic trees; whose high and undulating shore on the one hand is ornamented with thriving villages, and on the other spreads out an extensive alluvial, rich in all the gifts of Ceres, or rises abruptly from the river a mural escarpment of carboniferous limestone, which reflects its blue and sombre aspect in the crystal waters at its base. Like many other spots, however, remarkable for their loveliness, the subtle messengers of death have chosen it for their abode, infusing the poison of their breath into the serenity of autumn, when the transparency of the air and the purity of the sky, together with the gorgeous scenery, present at first to the unconscious traveller sensations alone of health and enjoyment.

The subject of this discourse was what is now the ertilizer-hope of the farmers--know then (and now) as Muscle Shoals. The quotation was recalled last week by A. E. Ortman of the Carnegie Museum in a letter to Science (a weekly for scientists). He made the following points regarding Muscle Shoals:

1) That it should be spelled Mussel Shoals instead of Muscle Shoals because it derives its name from the many kinds of fresh-water mussels (Naiades) found there;

2) That nowhere else in the world is there so large a collection of mussels. He counted 80 different species and varieties of 29 genera;

3) That the "beautiful islands" and other scenic features have been largely destroyed by the flooding of the bottom land following the building of Wilson Dam, and that the mussels are rapidly dying out;

4) That "the subtle messengers of death" refers to mosquitos and malaria which even today are producing alarming conditions.