The Rocky Coast Author:Rachel Carson, Charles Pratt (Photographer), Bob Hines (Illustrator) The complete text first appeared as a chapter entitled 'The Rocky Shores' in The Edge of the Sea. — Profile of the rocky shores of Maine and of the animals and vegetation that exist in these intertidal regions, specifically mussels. Along the American Atlantic coast, the spawning season of mussels is protracted, extending... more » from April into September. Large numbers of female mussels spawn at the same time, discharging eggs in a continuos stream of masses that contain hundreds of thousands, millions of cells, each of which is potentially capable of becoming an adult mussel. One large female may release up to 25 million eggs at a single spawning, which lasts about an hour. Tells how the cells develop; of the larval stage, and how the the mussel secures itself against being washed away in the surf.« less