STATISTICAL AND OTHER INFORMATION. 



88 5 



The following table gives the quantities of oysters 

 which were taken during these investigations from two of 

 the largest and most productive beds of the Schleswig- 

 Holstein coast, the Huntje and the Steenack banks. 



The proportion of marketable to medium-sized oysters 

 is thus seen to be almost the same upon single beds as in 

 a mean of all the beds taken together. 



In this similarity of proportions between the market- 

 able and medium oysters, in different years and upon dif- 

 ferent beds, a natural law is very strikingly manifested. 

 The medium-sized oysters of any bed consist of the des- 

 cendants of the marketable ones. They are those members 

 of the young broods which have escaped the numerous 

 enemies living upon and around the beds, and which, 

 despite the numerous attacks made upon their lives, have 

 grown into very respectable-sized animals. 



The medium oysters thus represent the total number 

 of embryos from the bed which, in the struggle for existence, 



