32 WESTERN SERIES OF READERS. 



but SO small that a man needed about a hundred 

 to make a good meal. 



These "native" oysters now live all along our 

 coast, being especially good in the northern parts, 

 about Puget Sound. In some parts of San Fran- 

 cisco Bay their shells wash up on the shore and 

 are gathered in great quantities. They are sold 

 for making walks, for feeding to chickens, and for 

 other purposes. 



As soon as the railroad from California to the 

 East had been built over the mountains and across 

 the plains, there was a chance to bring live oysters 

 from the Atlantic coast and plant them in the 

 shallow waters of the bay. Young oysters can be 

 conveniently packed in barrels, and if they are 

 kept moist and cool, they will live for a week or 

 more, and that is long enough to bring them on 

 the cars from one ocean to the other. 



When they arrive in Oakland, they are at once 

 put upon rafts and taken to the places which have 

 been well fenced to keep out the big fishes that 

 like oysters as well as we do. Then a man on the 

 raft takes up a shovelful of little oysters, and sows 

 them into the water as a farmer sows grain. 



In this way large spaces were planted with 

 Eastern oysters. The water was not very deep, 

 and in some parts of the beds the oysters would 



