3(5 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



abundant. It is a tradition, tliat a hundred years ago smacks used to come from Boston and load up with these 

 oysters ; but I am inclined to doubt the veracity of the tale. The most thickly inhabited j)ortions of this region, 

 were the basin just above the falls, the mouth of Dyer's river, and, chief of all, a point about one and a half mile 

 above the bridge. 



The bottom of the stream is rough and rocky, and the bivalves were always difficult to get. The ordinary 

 method was by diving. Ten years ago it was possible to get a bushel or two in a day up the Sheepscot river ; but 

 now Mr. Manly Sargent, the most experienced man in the village, thinks a peck would i)rove a good day's work. 

 They grow singly and of great size, shells a foot to fifteen inches in length have frequently been taken. They 

 closely resemble in character those at Damariscotta, and are pronounced of very fine quality. 



Speculation has been indidged as to whether this little colony of oysters is a natural one or not. There seems 

 to be good evidence to show that it was planted designedly by the Indians, before the advent of white men, with 

 mollusks brought from the Damariscotta beds. The i^osition and condition of the colony; the fact that the 

 banks of this river were thickly populated by Indians, who might be supposed to know enough to save themselves 

 the trouble of going four miles every time they wanted oysters, by transplanting them to their own stream ; the 

 fact that no more distant stream has them, although no good reason can be discovered for their absence ; and the 

 fact that no shell-heaps of any account exist to attest ancient use of the bed, all seem to confirm this supposition. 

 Dr. H. F. Hall, of Sheepscot, who has studied the matter with care, and various others, hold this opinion. As I 

 hinted before, it is probable that the isolated oyster-colony in the George river, near Thomaston, was planted in the 

 same way, and that Salt bay is the only really native and indigenous home of the oyster anywhere in this region. 

 These oysters have no commercial value, of course. They are much rarer than the partridges in the neighboring 

 woods, and there is little likelihood of their increasing. iTor are there are any shell-banks to afford a fertilizer for 

 the worn and rocky soil. 



C. THE SOUTH COAST OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



15. OYSTER-CULT DEE IN BUZZAED'S BAT AND VINETAED SOUND. 



Verbill on the oyster-beds of southern Massachusetts. — Buzzard's bay, indenting the southern shore 

 of Massachusetts, and nearly separating Cape Cod from the mainland, has been noted since its discovery for its 

 natural oysters, and is now the scene of wide cultivation and a large business. It was of this region that Professor 

 Verrill wrote the ensuing paragraphs in his Invertebrates of Vineyard Sound, several years ago : 



In Buzzard's bay the bottom is generally muddy, except in very shallow water about some of the islands, where patches of rocky 

 bottom occur, and opposite some of the sandy beaches, where it is sandy over considerable areas. Tracts of harder bottom, of mud or 

 sand, overgrown wilh algae, occasionally occur. In Vineyard sound the bottom is more varied * * *; muddy bottoms are only 

 occasionally met with. 



Attached to the sides and surfaces of rocks and ledges along many parts of this coast, young oysters, Ostrea Firginiana, often occur in 

 vast numbers, sometimes completely covering and concealing large surfaces of rocks. But these generally live only through one season, 

 and are killed by the cold of winter, so that they seldom become more than an inch or an inch and a half in diameter. They come from 

 the spawn of the oysters in the beds along our shores, which, during the breeding season, completely till the waters with their free- 

 swimming young. They are generally regarded as the young of " native" oysters, but I am uuable tolind any specific differences between 

 the northern and southern oysters, such differences as do exist being due merely to the circtimstauces under which they grow, such as 

 the character of the water, abundance or scarcity of food, kind of objects to which they are attached, age, crowded condition, etc. All 

 the forms occur both among the northern and southern ones : for they vary from broad and round to very long and narrow ; from very 

 thick to very thin; and in the character of the surface, some being regularly ribbed and scalloped, others nearly smooth, and others very 

 rough and irregular or scaly, etc. When young, and grown under favorable conditions, with plenty of room, the form is generally round 

 at first, then quite regularly oval, with an undulated and scalloped edge and radiating ridges corresponding to the scallops, and often 

 extending out into spine-like projections on the lower valve. The upper valve is flatter, smooth at first, then with regular lamelliB, or 

 scales, scalloped at the edges, showing the stages of growth. Later in life, esiiecially after the iirst winter, the growth becomes more 

 irregular and the form less syumietrical, and the irregularity increases with age. Very old specimens, in crowded beds, usually become 

 very much elong.ated, being often more than a foot long and perhajis two inches wide in the adult individuals; for nearly all the oyster- 

 shells composing the ancient Indian shell-heaps .along our coast are of this much-elongated kind. Nowadays the oysters seldom have a 

 chance to grow to such a good old age as to take this form, though such are occasionally met ^ ith in deep water. The young specimens 

 on the rocks are generally mottled or irregularly radiated with brown. They were not often met with on the shores of Vineyard sound, 

 for oysters do not flourish well in that sandy region, though there are extensive beds in some parts of Buzzard's bay, and a few near 

 Holmes' Hoh^, in a sheltered pond. The oysters prefer quiet waters, somewhat brackish, with a bottom of soft mud containing an abundance 

 of minute living animal and vegetable organisms. In such places they grow rapidly, and become fat and fine-flavored, if not interfered 

 ■with by their numerous enemies. 



Topography : Early abundance of shellfish in Wareham and vicinity — The best starting point for 

 inquiries, perhaps, is Wareham, an ancent town on Wareham river, which flows into the northern limit of the bay. 

 Below the "Narrows" where the bridge is, there is a broad inlet, known as the Northwestern arm of Buzzard's bay, 

 or sometimes as the Waukinco river. Above the bridge the Wareham river flows in, joined by the Agawam river 



