52 THE ECONOMIC MOLLUSCA OF AACDIA. 



The first European to speak of our Oysters appears to have 

 •been Champlaiu,* who, in " Les Voyages du Sieur de Cham- 

 plain," Paris, 1613, says that in Bras d'or Lakes, Cape Breton, 

 " there are many islands filled with a great deal of game and 

 Shell-fish of several kinds, among others of Oysters which are 

 not of good flavor." 



The next writer to refer to them was Nicolas Denys, in his 

 •" Description Geographique et Historique . . . de I'Amerique 

 ■Septentrionale," and his "Historic Naturelle . . . de I'Am- 

 •erique Septentrionale," 1G72. He tells us that good Oysters 

 were found in the region of the Gut of Canso and the south 

 shore of St. George's Bay, at Malagash, (apparently) at Pictou, 

 at Tatamagouche and at Cocagne, and at Grand Pabou. Of 

 Bras d'or Lakes, he says, — " There are found there only some 

 'Oysters which are not good when they are newly fished, because 

 they are too fresh, but they have a property, which is, that 

 •one is able to keep them nine or ten days without their losing 

 their water, after which they are salt and lose their insipid- 

 ness, which is caused by the fresh water of the rivers at the 

 mouths of which they are fished." And of Pictou Kiver, he 

 .says, — "At a league and a half within the river, on the left 

 hand, there is a large cove where is found a quantity of excel- 

 lent Oysters; those in the passage are almost all round, and 

 further within the cove they are of immense size; there are 

 some found as large as a shoe and almost of the same shape, 

 and all are very full and of good taste." These extracts are 

 interesting, as showing that the distribution and excellence 

 of our Oysters were known over two hundred years ago; the 

 beds have stood a constant strain since then. Denys describes 

 fully also the method of taking them, which will be referred to 

 below. A few references to them occur in books of the last 

 ■century f and the early part of the present, and since the 

 publication of the first of the Dominion Annual Fishery 



*Excepting the doubtful case given on p. 5, footnote. 



+ A curious error occurs in a little book, entitled, " The Present State of Nova 

 Scotia,"' published in Edinburg, in ir87. It says on p. 119, that Oysters have been 

 discovered in Chigneeto Bay, " and are now become an article of export to several 

 places." 



