OYSTER-INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 281 



the prodigious increase of this fish in the ponds of eastern Friesland, 

 where it was introduced by the Dutch at the beginning of this cen- 

 tury. In the thick-lipped mullet, Professor Valenciennes has counted 

 not less than thirteen millions of eggs. These examples show how 

 rapidly they multiply, and how important it is to acclimate species with 

 such remarkable powers of reproduction. 



The experiment with the gourami will, undoubtedly, soon be tried 

 again, by means of the steamers from Iudo-China and those of the line 

 from Alexandria. 



During my sojourn in the United States, although my commission 

 related particularly to the acclimation of mollusks, I extended my 

 researches to other species useful for food. Among others, I would 

 mention the terrapin-turtle, found at the mouths of rivers and in salt 

 marshes, and which is a very delicious article of food ; the lobster, 

 larger, but less agreeable to the taste, than ours j and several exclu- 

 sively fresh- water tortoises, of which the red-belly is the most esteemed. 

 The learned director of the museum of Cambridge, Mass., has engaged 

 to send to France, next spring, a sufficient number of specimens of the 

 latter species to make an attempt at acclimation in the ponds in the 

 suburbs of Paris. 



Among fresh-water fish, the large salmon-trout (Salmo amethystus) 

 and the white fish (Coregonus albus) would be great additions to 

 French ichthyology, if they could be transported to Europe. Professor 

 Agassiz,* whose opinion is authority in such matters, considers artificial 

 fecundation a certain means of success, as he himself informed the 

 Emperor, and which I had the honor to explain to His Majesty in an 

 interview accorded me at St. Cloud. 



Whatever may be the future of these projects, mentioned only to show 

 how many valuable resources we may render available, I must now leave 

 them and turn my attention to the acclimation of the mollusks, the 

 object of my visit to America. 



The shores of our two seas are singularly deficient in specimens of 

 edible mollusks, there being only a few scallops on the coast of Great 

 Britain ; some species of Venus, not at all abundant, in the bays of the 

 ocean and the Mediterranean ; a few cardiums, &c. Such is the extent 

 of our resources. America, on the contrary, whose Atlantic coast is 

 rich in shell-fish, is probably the most favored country in the world for 

 this kind of production.! The oysters, of which there are three species, 



* The distinguished professor is of the opinion that the French government ought to 

 undertake the acclimation of the nandou, which is much more susceptible of naturali- 

 zation in France than the ostrich of Sahara, for the single reason that it is a native of 

 a temperate climate. 



In 1860 1 pointed out the pearl mussel as capable of introduction upon the coast of 

 Algeria, and I even opened a correspondence upon the subject with a Greek merchant 

 of Alexandria, who was engaged in the pearl fisheries of the Red Sea. 



Recently Mr. Lamiral has published in the Bulletin de la Societt Imp6riale d'Acclimata- 

 iion a very interesting article upon this subject. 



tAs regards the fish commerce, the American coast presents a conformation entirely 



