202 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF FISHERIES, GAME AXD FORESTS. 



kitchen floor, and, being attached to a triangle, are drawn by oyster steamers over the 

 oyster beds, and the moment the mop touches a starfish the latter clings to it or is 

 gathered up by it and lifted by steam hoist to the decks and the "stars" are then taken 

 ashore and buried. The use of the mop enables the oyster planters to remo\'e the starfish 

 without injury to the young oysters. Not so with the periwinkles and drills illustrated 

 in colors, life size, in this report. The drill or borer is small, as will be seen by 

 referring to the colored plate, and it drills a hole through the oyster and kills it. The 

 drill bores into oysters up to two or three years of age, and then older oysters with 

 thicker shells fall to the periwinkle, which operates in the same manner as the drill. 

 The drill is the worst enemy the oysterman has to contend with to-day, and there is 

 no known way of destroying the drill except by dredging up everything on the ground 

 and removing the drills and returning the oysters to the bed. This dredging to 

 remove the drills is not only expensive but it destroys many young oysters, and while 

 dredging the ground fine nets have to be used inside the dredges to clean the beds 

 perfectly before oysters can again be planted. All that the oysterman can do is to 

 prepare the grountl in the best possible manner, plant the best possible material, and 

 if the set is obtained, wage a constant war against the enemies of the oysters ; but the 

 work never ceases, and too often it bears no fruit in the form of marketable oysters in 

 sufficient quantities to pay lor the work with added profit. 



EDWARD THOMPSON, 



Shellfish Commissioner. 



