126 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



an opinion on such a subject, was that the oysters had all died, or if by 

 chance there were any left, it was certain that they did not breed. My 

 first efforts were to determine if the eastern oyster can live from year to 

 year in western waters. If so, it can ripen its reproductive cells and spawn, 

 and then fertilization and development can take place. There was no 

 information to hand as to what portions of the bays the oysters had been 

 distributed in. I had to make use of research methods to discover what 

 should have been recorded. 



Hammond bay, the most accessible of the localities, is small, and I 

 could easily over-run all the beach at a low tide. On the left, after entering 

 and passing well up towards the disused whaling station, I found many 

 half-shells of Prince Edward Island oysters, disposed within short distances 

 from what appeared to be the centre at which they had been deposited. 

 I dredged outwards from this spot to see if there were any living oysters 

 in the deeper water but could not find any. Later in the season I found a 

 couple, stuck in the mud, near the centre of distribution, still living. 



Nanoose bay, some twelve miles distant, and perhaps five miles long 

 by a mile and a half broad, was a much more difficult case, for five barrels 

 of oysters might have been thrown out on to a small area of the beach, 

 or of the extensive flats, or below low-water mark. Upon my first visit 

 the tides were neap and unsatisfactory, so I tried dredging and was after- 

 wards surprised to find that I had actually judged to within a few rods 

 of the place. The second visit was devoted to a more complete survey 

 of the bounds, depth and bottom of the bay. On the third visit, which 

 was planned to strike a low tide, I went almost directly to the spot 

 and soon discovered some shells which led me to the centre of dis- 

 tribution. This was far up past the mountain and the little cove 

 on the right and in the first swale outwards from Webster's north- 

 east corner post. There were a good number of living Malpeques still 

 remaining, some of them with bits of Prince Edward Island red- 

 sandstone attached. Compared with my recollection of the small 

 oysters about Ram and Curtain islands in Richmond bay these app- 

 eared to have grown considerably. They varied from two and three 

 quarters to five inches in length, the original size of the planted 

 oysters being marked off from the new growth by a deep or broad 

 furrow. I took sixteen selected living specimens home for careful ex- 

 amination and found that only one had already spawned (July 17), 

 while the other fifteen were ripe and generally distended with eggs or 

 sperm. At 7.10 p.m. of the same day I put together eggs and sperm in a 

 tumbler of sea-water and at 7 a.m. next morning there was an abundance 

 of segmenting stages and swimming larvae. These observations proved 

 that Atlantic oysters can be transplanted to the Pacific and remain healthy 

 and grow; that they can come to maturity and ripen their reproductive 



