35G KEPOKT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



coiihl 1»<' i)r()(('(t('<l Iroiii the heavy waves l»y some IItiii outside barrier, 

 aiid be covered willi an abiiiidaiiee oriai',ue sliells not so likely to drift, 

 a pcniianeiit bed might readily be formed. Tlie eastern oysters laid 

 out on the natural slicllbanks in. some plaees are frequently rolled 

 along the Ix'd and washed high and dry ui)on the beaehes. Tliooriginiil 

 bedding-grounds along the east side of the bay have been abandoned 

 mainly on this account. 



It is ])ossible that I have not attached sui'licient im])ortanee to the 

 evil of overcrowding by the remarkably fertile native species. This 

 little oyster, naturally adapted to these places, finds the large shell of 

 the eastern oyster a fixing-surfaee specially adapted to its needs. It 

 is thus protected from the bad results attendant upon the changing 

 surface of its natural shellbanks; it has the advantage of the protec- 

 tion of the fences; it is nearer to the muddy bottom, from which much 

 of its food is derived, and yet is lifted by the shell of the large oyster 

 to a safe height above that bottom, where the under shells of a cluster 

 of any species of oyster would be smothered in the mud. So closely 

 do these indigenous oysters crowd upon the shells of the large species 

 that when a heap of the, latter have l)een cleaned for market the accu- 

 mulated i)arasites almost eciiial in bulk the edible species. Doubtless 

 they are responsible for crowding many of the young of the less adap- 

 tive eastern species com])letely out of existence. 



The native oyster (0. Inrida) grows twice as large at Willapa Bay, 

 Washington, as it does at San Francisco, and is constantly misnamed 

 the "California oyster." But no use is made of the small California 

 coast oystei-, except as its shells are utilized in the ways previously 

 mentioned. 



The Morgan Oy.sier Companji. — This <'ompany now maintains six 

 hnportant stations or groups of oyster beds in San Francisco Bay, 

 where oysters imported from the Atlantic coast are kept until they 

 reach a marketable size. All are situated in \\\q, southern part of the 

 bay, and are from 15 to .'i") miles back from the Golden (late. At each 

 of these localities there is a comfortable building for housing the 

 em]>loy(:s. l<'ach station is supplied with fresh Avater by an artesian 

 well, wiiich usually elevates the water a few feet above high tide, 

 windmills being added at three of the stations to raise the water to 

 tanks. At four stations (Dumbarton, San Bruno, Millbrae, and Alva- 

 rado, the last now abandoned) the lumses are built upon piles, and are 

 1 or 2 miles IVom the nearest land. At the other stations they are upon 

 islands or the shores of the bay. There are several inclosed oyster 

 beds near each of the houses, varying in extent from 50 to 100 acres 

 each. I had no nutans of knowing the actuid extent of the oyster beds 

 of this company, but Avill roughly estimate the territory fenci'd in by 

 stakes at 1,500 or 2,000 acres. This should, perhaps, be regarded as a 

 guess rather than as an estimate. 



