2K BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



vised in 1882 by Colonel McDonald. We got the young oysters so far 

 along as to have them adhere to the sides of the vessels ami to old oyster 

 shells, but beyond that point our results were not satisfactory. Some- 

 what similar results were obtained during the same year by Messrs. 

 Brooks and Winslow. That same season M. Brandely conceived the 

 idea of using sand as a barrier for the embryos of Ostrea angulata, the 

 Portuguese oyster, and succeeded in confining them in a pond fed partly 

 by salt water by the tide and partially by water from another i)ond used 

 as a reservoir, and from which the water passed through a spouge filter 

 to the breeding pond. The Stockton experiment was even simpler than 

 that of M. Brandely, which has already been described in the transla- 

 tion of his paper, addressed to the minister of marine of the French Gov- 

 ernment, having been published in Volume II of this Bulletin. It will 

 also be seen that his method does not differ essentially from the method 

 used in 1881 by the writer, on a small scale, at Cherrystone, and shown 

 in sectional plan in Fig. 7. 



In 1882 the writer also tested the method of blowing air upon the sur- 

 face of the water contained in the hatching receptacles, which, like the 

 cotton-wool diaphragms used during the same season for the purpose 

 of retaining the fertilized eggs of the American oyster, was also a fail- 

 ure as far as valuable practical results were concerned. Various de- 

 vices were also used for the same purpose by Dr. Brooks, Lieut. Francis 

 Winslow, and Henry J. Eice, and I believe all of these three last named 

 experimenters, like ourselves, had reared the young oysters to the con- 

 dition of fixation, so that it is not absolutely true that M. Brandely was 

 the fii'st to successfully rear oysters to the condition of fixation; but he 

 seems to have been the first to obtain spat from artificially fertilized 

 eggs. 



These historical details are introduced to show that the results so fer 

 obtained are not the fruits of the efforts of any one person, but that a 

 number have been actively engaged in the work, and that probably had 

 it not been for the success of the American investigators, who attacked 

 the problem of the development of our native oyster in 1879, the Euro- 

 peans, who now again took up the subject after twenty years of inac- 

 tivity, would not have been stimulated to undertake the investigations 

 which led to such successful results, at the hands of the secretary of 

 the College of France. 



The essentials for the artificial culture of oysters, we very well know, 

 have not yet all been determined, though some of the conditions re- 

 quired have been successfully supplied. What seems now to be required 

 seems to be further experiment to determine finally and quite satisfac- 

 torily the following points: 



1. Can sediment be effectually prevented from finding access to oyster 

 ponds, and how can the embryos naturally or artificially bred there be 

 confined in such inclosures? 



2. What are the best means of preparing the sides and bottoms of 



