238 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



placed in sloughs adjoining the bay, with the hope that favorable 

 conditions would be met with there. Others were placed in arti- 

 ficially constructed salt ponds somewhat after the style used by the 

 French. 



What has been the outcome? The oysters, particularly the 

 Princess Bay variety, have grown enormously and are in excellent 

 condition. Until this spring no Eastern spat or young Eastern 

 oysters had been discovered; this, of course, is the crucial point 

 in the experiment; we know they will spawn, but will the spawn 

 develop? Recently, much to our encouragement, a few young 

 oysters, apparently of last summer's spawning, have been found 

 and forwarded to Washington, proof positive that the oyster will 

 propagate here, but not certain evidence of the practical outcome 

 of the experiment. It is too early to predict results as yet; two 

 years more are really required to tell the story. 



For thirty years Eastern oysters have been shipped to San Fran- 

 cisco by enterprising firms of that city, planted there in the bay 

 until a large size is attained, and then sold at an immense profit. 

 These firms have ahvays claimed that the Eastern oyster did not 

 reproduce there. As far as can be ascertained from a reliable 

 source, the shipments in recent years have rather increased than 

 diminished, this fact being used as an argument to support the 

 above statement. It is nevertheless a known fact that much East- 

 ern spat and many adult oysters undoubtedly hatched there have 

 been found by members of the United States Fish Commission 

 and others. Moreover, with increasing trade one would naturally 

 expect more shipments, even though the introduced oyster did 

 propagate to some extent. 



Ostrea Ivrida, the toothsome little native oyster which years 

 ago w^as so abundant at Yaquina Bay, affording support to many 

 families, has decreased in numbers to such an alarming extent that 

 unless some radical measures are soon taken to prevent, the native 

 oyster industry of this locality wdll be a thing of the past. This 

 decrease in the size and numbers appears to be due to several 

 causes. In the first place, there has been a very persistent tong- 

 ing on a somewhat limited area. Tliis might have been counter- 

 balanced by proper precautions to insure a future supply, but, with 

 characteristic lack of foresight, such precautions have been neg- 

 lected, and the beds have been culled year after year, until the 

 comparatively few oysters now marketed from Yaquina Bay are 

 of very questionable size. Each oysterman has two acres of flats 

 for private use. Throe natural beds in the bay afford sources of 

 supply for these private beds. The larger oysters tonged on the 

 natural beds are marketed, and the smaller specimens spread on 



