176 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



tober, 1884. In the sandy earth excavated from the pouds, as described 

 above, I found young clams very recently dead, the shells of which 

 measured from ]£ to 1§ inches in length and from three- fourths to seven- 

 eighths of an inch in width, indicating the existence, when the soft parts 

 were entire, of animals ranging from 2 to over 3 inches in length, had 

 the siphon been included in the measurement. 



It is therefore clear that if boxes 18 inches or 2 feet square and 3 

 inches deep were filled with sand and placed on the bottom in the ponds 

 or the open waters, that the embryo clams swimming about in the water 

 during October would find a suitable nidus in which to burrow and 

 grow. After an immersion of six or eight months these boxes could be 

 raised and their contents examiued to obtain the young animals, which 

 could be removed from the sand without injury and repacked closer to- 

 gether, siphons upward, in other shallow boxes, which should be im- 

 mersed in tanks of sea water kept cool in the refrigerating chambers of 

 the transportation cars of the Fish Commission. In this way, if proper 

 precautions were observed in repacking the young mollusks, so as to 

 place them in the sand with the tip of the siphon just above the level 

 of the sand, they could be transported for long distances by rail un- 

 harmed and in the living state for the purpose of restocking exhausted 

 beds or areas where the creature had not before existed. 



Dr. E. E. C. Stearns, to whom I have spoken of this method of obtain- 

 ing the young of the common clam, is of the opinion that the young of 

 the giant clams of the Pacific coast might be obtained in the same way. 

 That is, if a number of the old ones could be dug up and replanted at 

 low tide close together and a lot ol boxes filled with sand, as described, 

 placed close to such a group of adults during their spawning season, 

 young individuals of either the huge Schizothcerus nuttallii, or Glycimeris 

 gencrosa, might be got to grow in such boxes. It is not very important 

 that the spawning season of the species named be determined with ex- 

 actness, for tbe reason that the boxes will last for several months, even 

 if attacked by the Teredo. If the boxes were placed in position, say 

 during the interval between June and September, it is probable that 

 they would be in place in time for the spawning season of the large spe- 

 cies named. 



Great difficulty has been experienced in handling the giant clams so 

 as not to injure tbe adults intended for transportation. Such difficulties 

 would be overcome by the adoption of the above method. For an illus- 

 trated account of the great clams of the Pacific coast the reader is 

 referred to an article by Dr. Stearns, published in the third volume of 

 the Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission for 1S83, (pp. 353- 

 3(13), where their habitats and conditions of life are fully described, 

 supplying the data needed in order to successfully institute the method 

 of obtaining the young described above. 



Washington, D. C, June 13, 1885. 



