TPIE OYSTER-INDUSTRY. 231 



Leap, ready to be turned into manure, represented sometbiug like 1,000 by 150 by -4 = 600,000 stariislies. Suppose 

 tbem to be the only starfishes caught in Warren river, and to have eaten only one oyster each before their capture, 

 and we have 000,()(!() uiollusks, or about .'5,000 bushels, destroyed. But the oysterraeu say not one in twenty-five 

 fingers gets canght, and that 50,000 bushels would come nearer to each season's lo.ss of young and okl oysters. 



It is in the latter part of the summer and in the antumn that the starfish pest occurs in its greatest violence 

 along the Rhode Island and Connecticut Coasts. Then they, tlieinselvcs, are done with their spawning and. have 

 renewed their vigor, and the young of all sorts of mollusks, crabs, and other prey abound upon the shores and 

 invite the five-fingers to an easy repast. It is at this season that the sudden appearance of great bodies of starfishes 

 make the heart of the planter sink within him ; for he knows tliat if they once attack a bed of his, they march straight 

 through it, and leave as dead a path as if it bad been swept by a fire. It is utterly useless to struggle against them, 

 except by pntting on a large force of men and taking np all the oysters on the bed. On more than one occasion 

 steamers have been employed, in order to hasten the work of dredging, at a large expense. 



I was told all along the coast, in order to acconnt for the sudden unlbreseen appearance of these bodies of 

 starfishes in the midst of an oyster-bed, that they came rolling in from the deep sea in a compact ball, all clinging 

 tightly together. This ball might be a foot in diameter, or as big as a barrel, and was rolled along on the bottom 

 by the tide. When it struck the feeding-ground it went to pieces, and the individual members at once began to 

 devour the oyster next to them, beginning with the tenderest. I discredit the truth of this statement, since I never 

 could find an actual witness of such a phenomenon. The nearest I came to it was this: Captain Eaton, an old 

 oysterman, whom I saw at New Haven, told me that several years ago, when he was with his brother at Norwalk, 

 they raked up one end of a cylindrical roll of starfishes clinging tightly together, which they hauled into their boat 

 nntil it would contain no more, when they bad to break the roll or " string", as he called it, which was a foot or more in 

 diameter. He did not mention anything inside of this cylindrical body, which was solid starfishes and nothing else. 



There is no reference in books, that I know of, to anything of this nature, except that Forbes quotes a French 

 writer, Deslonchamps, of 1825, who says that on the French coast, when the tide was out, and while two or three 

 inches of water remained on the sand, "he saw balls of Asterias rubens, five or six in a ball, their arms interlacing, 

 rolling out. In the centers of the balls were Mactne stuJforum [a kind of large clam] in various states of destruction, 

 but always unable to close the valves, and apparently dead." How much faith is to be put in this account, rei)eated 

 by many fishermen, and bow mucli of it is pure fablo, is hard to say from present data. In general it is known 

 that the starfishes live and breed among the rocks, begin to feed in summer, but do not move about much when 

 once they strike a feeding-ground, and either perish or retreat to deep water when the cold of winter approaches. 

 Mussels are preferred to oysters or clams, though I have heard it asserted that they will even make their way into 

 a quahaug, if hard i)rcssed. The smaller, thin-shelled bivalves fall an easy prey to them. One of these {Arcavirynkt ?) 

 is called the "blood-(iuabaug" by the rivermen, and when it is present the starfish will take nothing else. One of 

 the tracks saved from the attack which ruined the Great Bed in Providence river, is said to have owed its safety to 

 the abundance of " blood-quahaugs" upon it, which satisfied the starfishes. 



The only offsetting vahie in this plague, that I am aware of, is its usefulness as a manure, for wl;ich purpose 

 those taken by the oystermen are saved. They are especially recommended for grape-vines. Large quantities are 

 thus made use of in Great Britain and France. 



"Anciently," as I have read, "the Urasters were used in medicine. They were given internally as a decoction 

 with wine, in hysterical diseases and against epilepsy. The physicians of old times, members of a profession ne^'er 

 very remarkable for logical acumen, applied them externally in hernia, from some fanciful analogy betv.cen their 

 jiouting stonmch and the appearance of the rupture. Any medical man who would wish to revive the practice 

 will find the prescriptions carefully gathered together in Link, who, however, does not appear to have put much 

 faith either in the medical or gastronomical virtues of starfishes; yet, conceiving it necessary to find some use for 

 them, according to the manner of his times, he tells us they are of use to man, not because they serve as food to him 

 themselves, but because thej' feed the fishes, and the fishes feed him, adding, ' miror bine et in providentia divina 

 sapientiam.'" 



In spite of bis belief, however, I do not know any fishes that feed upon the sea-stars, except the cod. 



Prevention of s'I AUFisn eavages. — The question following a knowledge of the facts which have been given 

 above, is : What can be done to prevent, or at any rate lessen, the ravages committed by the starfishes upon oyster- 

 cultivation ' This is a very bard question to answer. The boundless tracts of the outer sea harbor them beyond 

 any hoi)e of extermination by us, and all operations must apparently be confined to the small localities occupied by 

 the oysters. Here, again, the expense involved in ridding one's property of the pests, makes it a question whether 

 it were not more profitable to let them alone. Possibly this might be the case in individual instances; and probably 

 it has been found so and acted upon almost universally up to the present. The result is a colonization and increase 

 of starfishes which fors;ike the single localities to which they were once confined and dev^astate a whole neighborhood. 

 E\iery man now suffers through his neighbor's neglect as well as his own. 



At Norwalk, Connecticut, the starfishes are probably now more injurious than at any other place on the coa.st, 

 and I ]iaid much attention to the matter there. The result of my inquiries seemed to show, that one man, in a sloop, 

 devoting his whole time to it, could keep ten acres of oyster ground clean of starfishes by dredging them oil'. 



