OYSTER RESOURCES OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 351 



Hill kI rods of thousands of bushels of oyster shells have been dis- 

 tributed over the bottom of Long- Island Sound in deep water, as 

 culteh to which the oyster spat could attach itself, with the very best 

 results. Strewing the shells of eastern oysters in the slightly deeper 

 waters .jjast outside the existing beds upon the tide lands, and in other 

 parts of the bay, might furnish the lacking element in these waters — 

 viz, lixing- surfaces for spat. Young oysters found in sucjh situations 

 could be taken up before the nest annual appearance of the stingray 

 and used as seed oysters in the customary way. It would seem that 

 there are possibilities for oyster-culture in San Francisco Bay by meth- 

 ods entirely distinct from those now practiced there. 



Eridcnces of natural lyropagation. — One of the first indications I had of 

 the natural propagation of the oyster was the finding of young oysters 

 six months or a year old upon beds where those three or four years old 

 were kept. They were in most instances attached to clusters of dead 

 shells of the small native oyster. Very few were to be found attached 

 to adult specimens of Ostrca virguiica, but this may be explained by 

 the fact that such oysters are frequently handled and " laid out" to 

 keep them well upon the surface and prevent any settling in the mud. 

 The handling is done in order to select and clean the largest for market, 

 the others being also cleaned of the ever- accumulating native oysters, 

 which would involve tlie destruction of such small eastern oysters 

 as might be among them upon the shells of the large oysters. 



The fact of young eastern oysters being attached to anything is 

 proof that they grew in the bay where they were found, for oysters do 

 not have the i)ower of fixing themselves a second time. All these small 

 oysters are knocked off the large shells with a small cleaning hatchet, 

 and the operation is a necessary one, as the extremely productive 

 natives cluster upon the large species in such numbers as to greatly 

 interfere with their growth. 



In October, 1891, I discovered some oysters of large size in certain 

 sloughs of the south bay, where they had long escaped the stingrays 

 in consequence of bars which shut off the sloughs from all but the 

 highest tide. These were the largest oysters seen at San Francisco, 

 and had evidently lain there for several years. More recently I obtained 

 a quantity of oysters, apparently two years old, in Oakland Creek. As 

 the oyster beds maintained there several years ago by Mr. Doane, now 

 of the Morgan Oyster Company, have long since been abandoned and 

 the stakes removed, it is evident that a limited number of oysters have 

 found conditions suitable for their development and growth, even in 

 this muddy place. They are no longer found on the mudflats, where 

 they were originally kept, l)ut live in the mud of the channel, from 

 which I obtained them with tongs. 



Mr. Cleaveland Forbes, of the Spring Valley Water Company, 

 informed me that several years ago he found fidl-grown eastern oysters 



