THE OYSTER-INDUSTRY. 21 



United States. It is an insignificaut stream, tbat flows down to the sea at Thomaston. The mouth of the stream, 

 as is the case always along that deeply indented coast, is in the form of a deep estuary, and forms a good harbor. 

 At a point about fifteen miles inland, measured along the river, the Knox and Lincoln railway crosses. Just above 

 the bridge a trifling- stream known as Oyster river comes in, and the confluence of the two streams is in a broad, 

 shallow expansion, about marking the head of the tide. It was just at this point that the first-comers to this region 

 found an abundance of oysters within a restricted space. Oyster river, a little stream that "makes in" between 

 Thomaston and Warren, was the principal point. According to the Hon. E. K. O'Brien, of Thomaston, tradition 

 asserts that sloops used to go there to load oysters for the neighboring colonies. They were abundant, also, on the 

 main George river, by Edward O'Brien's shipyard, in Warren. These old oysters are reputed to have been of 

 huge size, a report borne out by the remains of shells which now exist. Similarly, I believe, the first settlers found 

 at least a few oysters at Damariscotta, though history is silent and tradition is uncertain. It is positively known, 

 however, that the ancient Sheepscot settlement found in its oyster-beds a source of constant profit, both by 

 consumption and sale, and they are not altogether exhausted from that river yet, in spite of sawdust and chips. 



Lost oyster localities along the gulf of Maine.— It is probable that there were many other localities, 

 now forgotten, where the oyster existed along the gulf of Maine at the beginning of the seventeenth century, 

 besides those I have indicated, namely, Wellfleet, Barnstable, Weymouth, Boston, Ipswich, Newbury, Portsmouth, 

 Sheepscot, Damariscotta, and George rivers. Nor must it be forgotten that this catalogue does not embrace the 

 prolific field bordering Buzzard's bay, whence the colonies were constantly supplied overland. Add to this plenitude 

 of oysters the inexhaustible abundance of several species of "clams", so-called, scallops, lobsters, and so forth, and 

 it is no wonder that the shellfish are constantly alluded to in the narratives of the early struggles of the Pilgrims 

 against starvation, as a blessed source of food; for it may well be supposed that without them they would hardly 

 have survived the rigors of those dreadful first winters. Even their quality found a champion, who thought them 

 first rate. Josselyu informed his readers that the Indians fed much on lobsters, and adds : 



Some tliey rost, and some they flry as they do Lampres and Oysters, which are delicate breakfast meat so ordered; the Oysters are 

 long shell'd. I have had of them nine inches long from the joynt to the toe, containing an Oyster like those the Latines called Tridacuan, 

 that were to be cut into three pieces before they could get them into their mouths, very fat & sweet. 



In the face of this testimony, briefly indicated, it is curious that it should ever have been denied that the 

 oyster was indigenous in Massachusetts bay, as has been done more than once, and still more strange that so well 

 informed a naturalist as A. A. Gould should not have felt strong enough to affirm it. In Binney's edition of his 

 Invertebrates of Massachusetts it is stated: 



It is also a question on which there are various opinions, whether the oyster was indigenous in Massachusetts bay, or whether aU 

 ■which grow in the various oyster-beds owe their parentage to inhabitants of the Dalaware, Chesapeake, and Oyster bay, etc. That 

 they now [I8G1!] grow spontaneously, and, for aught we can le.arn, always have grown so, on the south shore, there is no reason to doubt ; 

 and that they are occasioually found of patriarchal appearance in all parts of our bay is certainly true. But the question is, whether 

 these places are their natural habitat, or whether they have been accidentally dropped where they were found. Many incline to this 

 latter opinion, especially the younger oystermeu and some scientific gentlemen; but the old settlers of Cape Cod are of a different 

 opinion. 



Mr. Gould would not have allowed this non-committal, and consequent doubt as to his own belief, had he 

 consulted history. Indeed, we may fairly give him the credit of believing better than he wrote, for in his first 

 edition (1811) he records that "old men relate that they were accustomed to go up Mystic river and Charles river, 

 and gather oysters of great size, before it was the custom to bring them from New York. And even now individuals 

 of enormous size are occasionally brought from both these places, and probably might be found, by special search, 

 at any time ". 



7. OYSTEE-CULTUEB IN THE GULF OF MAINE. 



Early attempts at oyster-culture. — I have ventured elsewhere to suggest that the oyster-beds in the 

 Sheepscot and George rivers may have been planted there by the Indians, who carried over from Damariscotta, 

 by paths yet traceable, a quantity of full-grown oysters, and placed them in those streams, in order to keep them 

 alive conveniently near home. If this supposition is correct, it is probably the earliest instance of oyster-culture 

 in North America. Nevertheless, oyster-culture proper— that is, the propagation of oysters in permanent beds, 

 which annually increase by their native spawn — remains almost unknown in the gulf of Maine, and uniformly 

 unsuccessful, except at one point. This is not wholly inattention to the matter, but the lack of suitable conditions 

 for successful growth. 



In a letter from General Benjamin Lincoln, of Hingham, Massachusetts, to the Eev. Mr. Belknap, author of the 

 History of New Hampshire, dated December li', 1791, it is remarked: 



We have undoubtedly been criminally inattentive to the propagation of the oyster in different parts of our shores; we can probably 

 fill our channels with these shellfish with much more ease than we can fill our pastures with herds and flocks. 



Had General Lincoln studied the case more deeply, he might have had to change his opinion of the "great 

 ease". More than half a century before— indeed, in the year 1711— "a plan for forming an oyster-bed in Plymouth 



