THE OYSTER-INDUSTRY. ^ 



In fishiug through the ice, on the contrary, every liviii"? thnig, and most of the loose dead matter within reach of 

 the long ruke, are scraped up. A barren spot of mud alone is thus left upoa the bed. In suiumer all the debris 

 brought up by the tongs is thrown overboard, aud is washed clean as it sinks waveringly to the bottom, forming 

 a loose layer of clean shells, etc , — precisely what the spawn needs to find support upon and cling to. It is equal 

 to putting down "sto^Js". 



It appears, however, that sometimes this throwing back is a great harm, because living ones may be so few and 

 the proportion of dead shells so large. Thus the local officer, Mr. John MaD. Sutherland, in Kent county, in 

 lS(i!), wrote that the beds at Kichibucto had been destroyed mainly through tlie practice of throwing baclr the shells 

 and dead oysters, which covered the living ones aud killed them. "I do not think," he adds, " the digging of mud 

 for manure iu any way injures the oysters, as there are none in the mud so taken, but a large quantity of very small 

 mussels." The ice-rakers, coatrary to this advisable method of throwing back the shells, pile the worthless stuff 

 they bring up on the ice, where it either remains to be floated out to sea when the ice breaks uj), or is carted away 

 to be spread on the fields. The bed is not only scraped perfectly bare of its oysters, therefore, but nothing is left 

 for even the spawn to attach itself to; present and future are both destroyed. 



This is a reasonable, and I believe a true, explanation of the decline of the yield at Shcdiac and at many other 

 points where it has been customary to rake in winter, so far as man's agency is concerned. The fact that the 

 Eichmond bay region, which is never raked through the ice, thrives under steady spring and fell work, supports 

 this notion. The midsummer rest may or may not be worth the giving, but the strength of the law should certainly 

 be opposed to working through the ice. 



Many beds have ceased to produce within historical times, apparently for no other reason, than that by the 

 natural process of growth, one generation of oysters resting on the dead remains of the last, has built up the 

 deposit until it has come too near the surface. The clearing of the country, and the consequent increased amount 

 of drifted matter and sediment brought down by the streams that empty into the estuaries where the beds are 

 situated, aid to bring about this I'esult, by raising the general level of the bottom, clogging the surface of the beds, 

 and thus lessening the depth of the water, until at some unusually low tide in winter the immense weight of the 

 ice, is let down upon the bed, crushing and freezing all its life. This appears to be the case in the bay of Bedeque. 

 As for the extensive submarine deposits of oyster-shells that girdle the eastern and northern shore of Prince 

 Edward island, we do not know how old they axe nor what killed them. Possibly the general geological elevation of 

 this coast brought them all too near the surface at once. I put much faith in this hypothesis. It has been said that 

 drifting ice tears up the beds; but I, i>ersonally, could not learn of any appreciable damage ever occurring in this 

 way. All the beds are well sheltered from the bergs and floes that swing up and down Northumberland strait, 

 and follow the currents through the stormy breadth of the open gulf. It is said to be one of the most favorable 

 conditions tliat conduce to the oyster-prosperity of the Malpeque region, that there the ice disappears earlier than 

 from the confined southern coasts of the island. 



I fin<l some discussion of this subject by the Hon. W. H. Pope, in his communications to Professor Whiteaves, 

 from Prince Edward island, already quoted by me. He says : v 



It is probable tliat mauy of the oyster-beds ceased to be productive of oysters ages before the settlement of the eouutry by Europcaiis. 

 Extensive deposits of oyster-shells are now found covered by several feet of silt. How were the oysters upon these beds destroyed ? The 

 natural process of reproduction and decay would cause the oyster-beds, formed on the bottom, to rise so near to the surface of the water 

 that the ice would rest ou them. The weight of heavy masses of ice upon the beds would iujm-e the oysters, aud the moving of the ice, 

 when forced by tide or wind across the bed, would soon destroy them. I have observed the more elevated portions of an oyster-bed over 

 ■which the ice had been thus forced. Several inches of the surface of the bed, including all the living oysters, had been driven before 

 the ice, and the shells aud oysters so removed had been deposited in a miuiature moraine on the slope of the bed where the water was 

 suflSciently deep to .allow the ice to pass over it. This crushing and grinding process would destroy many of the oysters; some would 

 be crushed and broken, others smothered in the moraine. The gradual silting up of the river would prevent the running of the ice, 

 and the oyster-beds would iu time be covered, as we now find them. Deposits of oyster-shells (covered with mud) 20 feet in depth, are 

 found in rivers in the deepest parts of which there are not 14 feet of water. 



Oysters upon natural beds are seldom, if ever, killed by frost. I have known oysters to thrive upon a hard aud stony bottom, 

 notwithstanding that the ice rested upon them once in 24 hours throughout the winter. Some of these oysters grew adherent to a small 

 flat rock, about 8 inches in thickness. The oysters on the top of the rock were killed when they attained their second year's growth, I 

 think, by pressure, as those on the edges were never injured by ice or cold. 



Oyster-beds iu rivers in which sawdust is thrown in large (luantities, would probably be injured by it. The sawdust would, I think, 

 be carried by the current over the beds, and the roughness of their surface would detaiu some of it. The interstices between the sheila 

 and oysters would probably become filled with sawdust and mud. Mud and decomposing sawdust constitute a most otleusi ve compound. 



There is another harmful influence exerted upon the oysters, however, by civilization, namely, the mud-digging. 

 The whole bottom of each and all of these oyster-bays is a comminuted mixture of decom])osed shells aud vegetable 

 matters, which goes under the name of mussel-mud. No one has ever sounded the full thickness of this, I think ; 

 but it has been dug to the depth of 20 feet by the rude horse-power scoops that are employed to dip it up. It 

 makes the best of manure, and hundreds of thousands* of loads have been spread upon the ncighboriug farms 



'During the past teu or twelve years millions of tons of oyster-shells and mud have been taken up by our farmers from oyster-beds, 

 by means of dredging-machines worked by horses on the ice. In m.any instances the beds have been cut through, aud iu some places the 

 deposits of shell have bccu found to be upward of 20 feet lu thickuiss. — Pope. Letter to 'Whiteaves, Canadian Xaturalint, vii, 340, 



