INVESTIGATION OF OYSTER SPAWNING, ETC., MILFORD, CONN. 433 



Connecticut Oyster Farms Co. generously supplied a sufficient quantity of large 

 oysters to establish two spawning beds, one of which was located on the flats and the 

 other in the channel. Since at present these waters are unpolluted to any serious 

 degree, it was possible, by the rehabilitation of this small harbor, to study the oyster 

 in an environment very similar to that in which it thrived in years past. 



Milford Harbor is but one of the many inshore areas that border and empty 

 into Long Island Sound, and its topography would not be complete without a de- 

 scription of this adjoining large body of water. 



Long Island Sound is a partially inclosed basin having a length of about 80 

 nautical miles and a depth averaging 65 feet. Its general shape is that of a double 

 convex lens with the broadest portion at a point just southeast of New Haven, 

 where its width is about 16 miles. From this point to the eastward the width of 

 the Sound decreases gradually until it is about 8 miles wide at its mouth, where it 

 receives the water from Block Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean. To the west- 

 ward of New Haven the shore lines also converge until they are less than a mile 

 apart at the head of the Sound or upper entrance to New York Harbor. 



The longitudinal axis of the Sound lies in a northeast and southwest direction 

 and is about at right angles to the rivers emptying into it from the north. The 

 two principal drainage basins discharging into the Sound are those of the Connecticut 

 and Housatonic Rivers, the valley of the former extending about 250 miles to the 

 north and of the latter, 90 miles. 



The water in the Sound is a mixture of the salt water brought in by the tides 

 from the ocean with the fresh water discharged by the rivers, its average salinity 

 for the year, as determined by Galtsoff (unpublished report), ranging from about 

 24 parts per thousand at Hell Gate to 29 at its mouth. As a result of the tides, 

 the level of the Sound changes constantly, and large inshore areas, covering thousands 

 of acres, are regularly flooded and exposed at times of high and low water. The 

 location, extent, and contour of these flood grounds determines, to a noticeable 

 degree, the differences that are found in the physical conditions in each of the various 

 inshore areas, such as Milford Harbor, and in the various parts of the Sound. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 



GENERAL 



A study of the early location of the natural oyster beds and shell deposits along the 

 coast of Long Island Sound clearly indicates that certain regions were more favorable 

 than others for the growth and propagation of the oyster. The favorable regions, 

 for the most part, were found to lie in the coves, bays, and estuaries and were all 

 similar in structure, consisting generally of a partially inclosed basin, which received 

 fresh water from the land and salt or brackish water from the place into which it 

 emptied. In these bays and harbors the natural beds extended from nearly the 

 upper Hmit reached by the brackish water to some distance outside of the entrances. 

 This is well illustrated in Figure 2, which is taken from an old map of the 03'ster 

 grounds of Connecticut published in 1889. The locatioia and extent of the natural 

 beds clearly defines the regions in which the physical conditions were most favorable 

 for the growth and propagation of the oyster. If we examine these areas carefully, 



