OYSTER CULTURE IX AMERICA. 82 1 



few may survive is possibly the case, but that the majority 

 recover, after being covered with sand for any length of 

 time, is very doubtful. 



The testimony of all persons in the neighbourhood o* 

 the Sounds was to the effect that the beds were deterior- 

 ating Accepting, then, the statement, it is 



necessary to account for the deterioration if possible. 



. . . . Briefly, the change in the beds has been a 

 material expansion of their limits, and a material diminu- 

 tion of the number of oysters upon them, and therefore the 

 causes for such changes must be sought among such as it 

 is known would produce like effects. 



Disregarding for the present the agency of man in the 

 matter, the question is, what natural cause or causes would 

 both expand the beds and diminish the number of oysters ? 

 A bed is extended naturally by the drifting spat or " young 

 brood ' attaching themselves to any clean, hard, and 

 moderately rough substance contiguous to the bed. The 

 locomotive powers of the " spat " exist for but a short time, 

 and, except when assisted by the current, they can only 

 move a short distance, and unless some suitable object 

 presents itself for their attachment, they will sink into the 

 soft bottoms and die. 



The principal expansion of the beds, so far as could 

 be effected by nature, must, however, have been accom- 

 plished long ago, the beds being surrounded originally, 

 and indeed at present, by soft bottoms of a character which 

 would be most destructive to the "brood," unless some 

 substance was interposed between it and them for their 

 reception. Natural expansion can only be achieved to any 

 extent in the manner described, and though probably there 

 is and has been a slow extension of the beds due to natural, 



