THE ECONOMIC MOLLUSCA OF ACADIA. 5T 



cost from five dollars per barrel upwards, and are imported 

 chiefly in the winter. 



All agree, that price and other conditions being equal,, 

 our native Oyster is preferred to the imported, on account 

 chiefly of its better flavor. 



We have not been able to prepare statistics to show the- 

 value of the importation of United States Oysters into Canada. 

 But it is enough to say that Canadian beds do not produce- 

 nearly enough for Canadian needs, and not too much to say, 

 that Canadian beds are capable of supplying Canadian needs- 

 and much more, if properly managed. 



The immense fertility of the Oyster can find no more 

 forcible illustration than the above table. That in the face 

 of reckless and unrestrained over-fishing, destruction of the 

 young, polution of the water by mills, and, in a measure, 

 by mud-digging machines, cutting to pieces of the beds by 

 the latter, disregard of the spawning season and other griev- 

 ances, the Oyster-yield should be actually increasing is sur- 

 prising enough. This continuation of the supply, however,, 

 has been in great part due to the discovery of new beds as 

 old ones became exhausted, and the utilization of previously 

 known but inferior ones; but we must now be well nigh their 

 end. It is interesting to note, as one must in looking over 

 the Fishery Reports, how the point of greatest productiveness- 

 has shifted about during the past fifty years. Our beds have 

 always been considered public property,* to be fished by any- 



*Denys' description of the modp of taking the Oyster prior to 1672, is not only- 

 interesting in itself, but in many respects would stand as a description of opera- 

 tions to-day. 



" I have spoken of Oysters in the first book, but I have not told you that they 

 are a great manna for the winter, when the season does not allow of going a-flshing. 

 They are in the coves or on the coast near the land. To get them, the ice is broken, 

 a large opening is made ; then are provided slender poles long enough to touch the 

 bottom. Two of them are bound together about the middle, then they are opened, 

 ani closed like tongs. They are taken from the water and thrown upon the ice. 

 This fishing is never resorted to unless there are several persons; some fish, another- 

 makes the fire, another shells them for frying, others place them on the coals, two 

 or three in a large shell, with their water, with crumbs of bread and a little pepper 

 or nutmeg. They are cooked like this, and it is a good feast, and when they are- 

 well filled, each one takes his load, and the dogs draw, each one a bag-full on a little 

 sled, which is made very light for them ; harnessed like a horse they go always running 

 over the ice or snow; they are the ones which carry all the equipage of the hunters."" 



Oj'Sters are still taken in Acadia by tongs or rakes. The dredge is never used. 



