THE OYSTER-INDUSTRY. 5 



Lave straight and narrow or eveuly-rounded shells, and grow singly. "When the oysters grow in clusters, the 

 fishermen consider it a sign of degeneracy. Tliat, as a rule, the oysters found nowadays are smaller than those 

 taken by the last generation, is probably a tradition, without better foundation than other popular suppositions 

 that we live iu degenerate d?lys ; the old shells dredged from the mud show no gigantic proportions. 



The oysters diil'er iu taste, and consequently in quality, with the locality. Those from Shediac, Bedeque, and 

 Eichmond bays are esteemed most highly, because they are of firm substance and strongly saline flavor. Those 

 from the other beds are of fresher flavor, and some, for instance those in Hillsborough river, are disliked, because 

 "thin and watery". This seems due mainly to the fact that they are subjected to more fresh water than is good 

 for them when the tide is out. The oysters of poorest quality of all, according to common report, come from the 

 Eichibucto region, although there is the deepest water in which I have known them to be taken.* 



Character of the beds. — The depth of water in which they live varies, from places so shallow that they 

 are left quite exposed by the lowest tides, to a depth of 40 feet. This last is reported from Eichibucto. Perhaps 

 the average depth may be put at 10 feet.t 



The oysters occur in beds of varying size and shape. Some of them will be only a few rods, others several 

 acres in extent. The slow accumulation of living upon dead oysters, the drifting of the sediment, and the growth of 

 other organisms, have built many of these beds almost up to the suiface, leaving a deep channel between neighboring 

 colonies. The foundations of such beds have been proved to be in some cases more than 20 feet below their crests. 

 Here and there, however, as in some parts of Eichmond bay, and at Oaraquette, the beds appear to be less well 

 defined and of more modern origin. The height which the oyster-beds attain above the general level of the 

 bottom, probably furnishes a solution of the well observed fact, that the ice becomes unsafe over an oyster-bank, 

 while it is firm elsewhere ; the ridge of the beds would, form cuiTents in the tides that would wear the ice over 

 them with more force and rapidity than elsewhere. 



These oysters seem to have few enemies. In a list of animals found associated with this mollnsk on the beds 

 at Shediac, Professor Whiteaves marks the mussels, Mytilus edulis and ModioJa modiolus, the Natica heros, two 

 starfishes and a sea-urchin, as " more-or less inimical"; but he adds : " So far as I could see, these do not exist in 

 sufficient abundance in Northumberland straits to be of any serious disadvantage." One of the old oystermen at 

 Shediac told me he had only seen three starfishes in his whole life. The shells of all sorts of bivalves here are 

 almost universally perforated by a sponge, but no harm seems to ensue to them when living. 



2. MANNEE OF PEOCUEING THE OYSTEES, 



Early oyster-fishing. — The methods of procuring oysters employed in the maritime provinces are substan- 

 tially those followed in the United States, so far as the summer fishing is concerned. But in winter, oysters are 

 often raked through the ice. That this is an ancient custom, appears from a paragraph in Charlevoix's History of 

 North America : 



Oy fters are very Plenty in Winter on the Coafts of Acadia, anil the Manner of fifhing for them is fomething fingular. They make a 

 Hole in the lee, anil they thruffc iu two Poles in fuch a Manner, that they have the Efleot of a Pair of Pincers, and they felilom draw them 

 lip without an Oyfter. 



The oyster-industry at Shediac. — The two most famous localities for oysters are Shediac and Summerside. 



Shediac is a village of about 801) to 1,000 people, situated on the south side of Shediac bay, an inlet from 

 Northumberland straits. The harbor extends for about four miles inland, and into its upper end flow one or two 

 small rivers. The outermost point of the harbor is Point du Chene, where the terminus of the Intercolonial 

 railway ti'om St. John is located. The harbor of Shediac is commodious, and protected by Shediac island; but 

 the depth of water is not great, and the few foreign vessels that come here annually for deals, are obliged 

 to anchor off the point. Their cargoes are conveyed to them, from the mills at the head of the bay, in rafts. 

 Shediac is an ancient settlement of the Acadians, and has been the scene not only of Indian battles, but of 

 French garrisons, and of sanguinary conflicts between French and English, during the long contest which raged 

 for the possession of these shores during the early part of the last century and previously. Once or twice, long 

 ago, it was burned to the ground, and has sulfered a third conflagration since my visit. At one time it was hoped to 

 make it a port of importance, but its sole fame at present rests upon its oysters ; and this is a fading glory, for the 

 beds are nearly depopulated of the excellent bivalves that formerly flourished in such abundance. 



From the long railway wharf at Point du Chene, itself founded upon oyster shells, the beds once existed in 

 thick succession along both shores of the bay, and for some distance up the Shediac river, clear around to the 



•Oysters are abundant at C'ocaigue, Biictouche, Eichibucto, Burnt Church, and other ])laces on the coast, but in general they are 

 too far withiu the mouths of fresh-water streams, and their quality is greatly inferior to those afi'ected by sea-water only. — PEKLiiY. 

 Seport on the Fisheries, 1849. 



t You inquire : " Do you thint oysters would thrive in somewhat deeper water than that in which they are now fouud, if sown there ? " 

 I think they would thrive in the deepest part of any inland water, if placed upon suitable ground. — Pope. Letter to Whiteavea, 

 Canadian Naturalist, yii, 347. 



