7 14 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



sistence for the people. This enviable fact is no argument 

 against the injuriousness of a continuous and severe fishing 



of the beds But as the number of consumers 



increases in America, the price will also surely advance, 

 and then there will arise a desire to fish the banks more 

 severely than hitherto, and if they do not accept in time 

 the unfortunate experience of the oyster culturists of 

 Europe, they will surely find their oyster beds impoverished 

 for having defied the bioconotic laws." Professor Mobius. 



In the compilation of this most important and inter- 

 esting chapter, I am indebted, chiefly, to the scientifically- 

 far-famed and highly valuable works of two American gen- 

 tlemen, namely, Lieutenant Francis Winslow (a) and Dr. 

 W. K. Brooks fbj, each of whose courteous promptitude in 

 answering my request for permission to quote from their 

 " Reports " was only equalled by the generous consent 

 which characterizes both their replies, and which I cannot 

 praise too highly, the more especially so since they were 

 strangers to me. I have, therefore, very great pleasure in 

 publicly acknowledging and sincerely thanking these emi- 



(d) " Report on the Sounds and Estuaries of North Carolina, with 

 reference to Oyster Culture. By Francis Winslow, Lieutenant U.S. 

 Navy, Assistant U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Commanding 

 Schooner Scoresby." Washington (Jan., 1889.) 



" Methods and Results;" Report on the Oyster Beds of the James 

 River, V.A., and of Tangier and Pocomoke Sounds, Maryland and 

 Virginia. Appendix No. II. Report tor 1881. (Washington, 

 Government Printing Office, 1882). 



(b) "The Development and Protection of the Oyster in Maryland." 

 By W. K. Brooks, Ph. D., Associate Professor of Morphology in the 

 Johns Hopkins University. Being the Report written by him as 

 Chairman of the Oyster Commission of the State of Maryland, and 

 presented to the General Assembly, February, 1884. (Baltimore : 

 Publication Agency of the Johns Hopkins University.) 



