568 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES, 



laminae, coarsely or finely corrugated. It is composed of two very distinct layers, differing in 

 color and also in texture and destruetibility but having essentially the same structure. Traces 

 of cellularity are sometimes discoverable ou the external surface, and one species (P. nobitis) has 

 a distinct prismatic cellular layer externally. As the idea of the Corinthian capital is believed to 

 have been suggested to Callimachus, the Grecian architect, by a plant of the Acanthus growing 

 around a basket, it is quite possible that the fluting of the Corinthian column may have been sug- 

 gested by the internal grooving of the pecten shells.'" 



The present writer is compelled to acknowledge his ignorance concerning much of the infancy 

 as well as the habits in later life of this mollusk that, he would like, to know. In relation to our 

 common commercial species, the Pecten irradians, it " occurs among the eel-grass on muddy shores 

 iu great abundance, in many localities, especially in sheltered places ; " but Professor Yen-ill, whose 

 words I have just repeated, adds that it is "also frequently found living on sandy shores and flats 

 or in the pools." 



The spawn (or eggs) is thrown out into the water much in the manner of oysters, clams, and 

 other bivalves, and such of it as escapes destruction by fishes or the hundred of accidents that 

 threaten the life of those delicate objects, catches on stones, seaweeds, and other firm supports, 

 from the sheltered tide-pools down to a considerable depth. This is early in the summer. By the 

 middle of July, in Narragansett Bay, this "seed" is about as large as the head of a lead-pencil, 

 and it does not drop from its support for two weeks or more. The growth is very rapid while the 

 warm weather lasts, so that they attain about half their full size when winter stops, or nearly 

 stops, their further growth. In November the young scallops, spawned the previous June, will be 

 found in great numbers all along the shore, from an inch to an inch and a half in diameter, and 

 moving about very actively. 



Where eel-grass grows in quantities, however, as in Oyster Bay, on the northern shore of 

 Long Island, the young keep among it, clinging to the stalks, until by their weight they bend the 

 grass down or break it, when they drift out the bay with the grass when it floats away in the fall. 

 In the spring of 1880 the grass came into the bay, bringing young scallops; thus the abundance 

 that year was accounted for, though there had not been a crop before in that bay since 1874. I 

 have not heard what effect the subsequent severe winter (of 1SSO-'8I) had upon these scallops. 

 When older and free from the need of protection in the eel-grass, they go moving about the bay 

 "until they find the right bottom to live upon," as an experienced Long Islander writes, "when, 

 in sailor phrase, they come to anchor and stay there, unless driven away by heavy storms, as often 

 happens. Under such an accident thousands of bushels are often driven up on the shores of the 

 bay and die there by freezing." 



Referring to this point, Capt. S. Pidgeou, of Sag Harbor, says that, if possible, when driven 

 before a storm, they will work to windward, and he has seen them swimming iu schools 10 feet 

 deep. North Carolinians report that the movements are all within small limits, and that in those 

 southern "sounds" the scallops prefer the grassy beds iu shoal water, but are occasionally found 

 on the sand. Though they increase iu size very little during the winter, they are said to begin a 

 second period of growth in spring, and to come to maturity in a single year, so that they fre- 

 quently produce spawn in the June following their birth, and are in condition for the market the 

 subsequent autumn that is, when from fifteen to eighteen months old. The rapidity with which 

 they enlarge their size, and particularly their fatness, or the ratio of flesh to shell, estimated by 

 measure, is shown when they come to be prepared for market. At New Bedford, I am informed, 

 a bushel of scallops will yield only 2 quarts of "meats" at the beginning of the season, in Octo- 



