752 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



The habit of growing in the erect position, where the banks are prolific and undisturbed, 

 causes tlu' individuals to be very much crowded together, so that they do not have a chance to 

 expand and grow into their normal shape. From this cause, overcrowding, the shells of the 

 individual Oysters become very narrow and greatly elongated; the peculiar forms which result 

 are known to oystermeu as " Raccoon Oysters," or "Cat's-tongues," the latter name being probably 

 derived from a suggestive resemblance to the tongue of a cat. Fossil Oysters appear to have had 

 the same habit. In some banks their crowded condition may be inferred from the fact that I 

 counted as many as forty Oysters in an area included by a quadrangle of wire including exactly 

 one square foot; thirty individuals to the square foot was a fair average on one bank 

 examined. 



All of the observant writers upon the Oyster agree that it is essential that the bottom upon 

 which oyster-banks are to be permanent should not be liable to shift or be covered by mud or 

 sediment. The experience of the writer strongly enforces such a conclusion. The permanent 

 banks, owing to the great number of dead shells scattered through the bottom soil upon which 

 they have been established, acquire a peculiar solidity or fixedness which the currents of tide water 

 cannot sensibly affect. When these banks are once covered by the clusters of Oysters more or 

 less securely held together by the lower portions becoming imbedded in the soil below, and 

 mutually wedged and fitted together by the any msurfaces of contiguous clusters which have 

 become neatly adapted to each other by pressure, it is a very hard matter for the tides to smother 

 the bank unless sufficient soil in suspension is carried by the waters to completely cover the 

 animals. 



ESTABLISHMENT OF ARTIFICIAL BEDS. The inferences to be drawn from the foregoing 

 observations are very important. They naturally lead to the inquiry whether artificial OysteY- 

 beds cannot at least be established in shallow water, where the difficulties in altering the 

 character of the bottom so as to adapt it to the wants of the Oyster are not practically 

 insurmountable. I believe that the establishment of artificial beds, which would in time become 

 similar in every respect to the natural ones, is possible in a moderately rapid tideway. The 

 localities, I apprehend, are abundant along the shores of the Chesapeake, and I certainly 

 know of few places where the existing natural conditions for such a project are any better 

 than those found in Saint Jerome's Creek. The bottom would, of course, have to undergo such 

 preparation as would insure to it solidity, and it might be well to imitate the flat, ridge-like 

 character of the natural banks in constructing' artificial ones. The long axis of the beds should 

 probably lie transversely to the direction in which the tide ebbs and flows in and out of the 

 creeks, as appears to be the case with many banks examined. The next thing to do would b^ 

 to colonize these artificial banks with Oysters stuck thickly into the bottom, hinge downward, 

 imitating the position of the animals in the natural banks. The cost of such an experimental 



bank would be comparatively insignificant. 







Since the publication of the substance of the foregoing suggestion I have seen the idea 

 practically realized in the Cherrystone River, Virginia. A heap of Oyster-shells had been 

 scattered so as to form a low, solid elevation, which was submerged twice a day by the tide. 

 Upon this spat had caught and grown until the whole in two years was as completely and 

 solidly covered by living natural-growth Oysters as any good natural bank. The desirability 

 of using the poorly grown stock from natural and artificial banks as "seed" for planting 

 appears reasonable, and could no doubt be made profitable where banks of a sufficient extent 

 could be established, from which a supply of seed could be obtained. 



