sentences:  Freshwater mussels, a species persecuted for its pearls, are found in places on the Glazert and the Garnock.Pont in 1604–08 records that so thickly was the district about Stewarton and along the banks of the Irvine populated for a space of three or four miles "that well travelled men in divers parts of Europe (affirm) that they have seen walled cities not so well or near planted with houses so near each other as they are here, wherethrough it is so populous that, at the ringing of a bell in the night for a few hours, there have seen convene 3000 able men, well-horsed and armed.