OYSTER RESOURCES OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 353 



native oyster {Ostrea lurida). Indeed, there is nothing- on this whole 

 bank but clean shells of the native sjiecies. The bank is exposed to 

 heavy seas during the season of strong winds, and many eastern oys- 

 ters doubtless become buried beneath the easily drifted shells of the 

 small natives. It is probable that there is a very great production of 

 eastern oysters here that ayc know nothing of, as the whole tract is 

 accessible to stingrays, which prey upon every kind of shellfish outside 

 of the stake-protected beds. It is also probable that the heavy seas 

 which at times sweep across this shallow section of the bay and actu- 

 ally break up the clusters of native oysters by rolling them toward the 

 beaches, have an injurious effect upon newly fixed eastern spat by 

 burying them beneath the drifting shells. 



Considerable (quantities of wild eastern oysters are annually gath- 

 ered upon this and other sbellbanks in the bay. They are retaile*! in 

 Oakland and Alameda at $1.50 per 100, or sold to the oyster compa- 

 nies who lay them out on their fenced beds for further growth. They 

 are obtained when unusually low tides happen to expose them. No 

 tonging or dredging is done, the oysters being gathered by hand. The 

 work is performed chiefly by boys. I have no means of knowing the 

 quantity of oysters derived from this source. 



It appears, therefore, that there are other parts of San Francisco Bay 

 as good for oyster-culture as those now inclosed, and that the increase 

 of Avild oysters now growing there would be more rapid if they were 

 inclosed and afforded similar protection from heavy seas, stingrays, etc. 



Spawning season. — It is not unlikely that the oyster spawns here as 

 early as on the north Atlantic coast, as the warming to which adult 

 oysters are often exposed early in the spring during low tides must 

 have a tendency to hasten the process. I have not examined them 

 earlier than the 1st of May, but from that time until July 15 plenty of 

 them are to be found ripe with eggs. Of other months I can not speak 

 l>ersonally. Dr. H. W. Ilarkness, president of the California Academy 

 of Sciences, inforjiied me that during one year he examined many 

 oysters from the market stalls with tlie microscope, and he exj)ressed 

 the belief that oysters could be found Avitli eggs during nmst months 

 of the year. Opinions of oystermen dilfer as fo the duration of the 

 spawning season, but irorn April ti) August serins to be the decision of 

 the majority. 



J^otcs on the general history of the oyster industry of San Francisco 

 Bay. — Live oysters were first brought here by A. Booth, of Chicago, 

 about the year 1870, when the first overland railroad was completed. 

 Afterwards, from time to time, others engaged in the introduction of 

 eastern oysters, and they eventually brought only supplies of seed 

 oysters, which were bedded until they became marketable. 



Corville & Co. established an oyster bed a short distance south of 

 Point San Bruno about 1S72, This place Avas subsequently owned by 

 Swanberg & West, who had both eastern and Willapa Bay oysters at 

 Pinole Point at one time. 

 H. Mis. 113 L>3 



