NO. IQ.] ECHINODERMS OF CONNECTICUT. 37 



in season and out of season, and their numbers reduced, they 

 are sure to overwhelm and totally destroy the oyster beds. This 

 refers particularly to shell-fish lands situated in Long Island 

 Sound, for it is true that there are some localities where com- 

 parative freedom from the enemy is enjoyed. 



' Many devices have been invented and used for the purpose 

 of destroying the stars. The one now in general use by the 

 planters is the star-mop, or tangle. It is made of cotton cords 

 or strings, arranged in large tassels or bunches, attached to 

 a steel frame, and drawn over the beds by means of the dredging 

 chains and machinery. The stars become entangled in the 

 meshes of these mops and are raised in large numbers. Mr. 

 Herman D. Pausch has made many experiments for the purpose 

 of perfecting some better plan of combatting this scourge. He 

 has found, he believes, a practicable method for use in localities 

 where there is not too great depth of water. His plan is to 

 make a continuous wall or ridge of lime along the boundary 

 of the bed to be protected. He has accomplished this by filling 

 paper bags with quicklime and dropping these bags along the 

 line. The paper serves to hold the lime frqm being carried 

 away by tides while descending through the water. The water 

 will of course slack the lime, but Mr. Pausch states that so long 

 as the lime barrier remains intact no starfish will cross it. He 

 has experimented quite extensively in this direction, and is of 

 the opinion that the results obtained will warrant the use of his 

 methods upon a large scale. One of his tests consists o>f placing 

 starfish within lime enclosures, and though kept there for con- 

 siderable periods of time not one will attempt to cross the line 

 which separates it from freedom. 



' Mr. Pausch says that the lime barrier constitutes a veritable 

 dead line for the sea-star. He considers the use of paper bags 

 a somewhat clumsy plan for getting the lime to the bottom, and 

 is now engaged in perfecting an apparatus by means of which 

 he may feed the lime through a hose or pipe so drawn over the 

 ground as to leave an unbroken ridge of the material on the 

 bottom. 



" The vast numbers with which the star overwhelms the shell- 

 fish beds, taken in connection with his insatiable appetite, make it 

 clear that nothing but eternal vigilance on the part of the planter 

 will hold the day against him. 



