44 THE OYSTER. 



ocean by the current produced by the gill cilia. As 

 they contain no food supply, their power to live inde- 

 pendently is very limited, and all soon die except 

 those which come into contact with eggs. 



In the American oyster the eggs are swept out into 

 the water in the same way. The eggs of the European 

 oyster are much larger and heavier, and they fall into 

 the water tubes of the gills and lodge there. Here 

 they are exposed to the current of water which circu- 

 lates through the gills, and this, current brings with.it 

 some of the male cells which swim in the water around 

 the oyster-bed. As soon as one of them comes into 

 contact with an ^g^ it fuses with it and loses its 

 individuality and is lost in the substance of the ^gg, 

 which is thus fertilized and at once begins its develop- 

 ment into a new oyster. 



There is no such provision for securing the fertili- 

 zation of the eggs of the American oyster. They are 

 thrown out into the water, like the male cells, to be 

 fertilized by accident, artd while many of them meet 

 with male cells, innumerable multitudes sink to the 

 bottom and are lost. It is fortunate for other animals 

 that this is the case, for our oyster is so prolific that 

 if all the eggs were to be fertilized and were to live 

 and to grow to maturity, they would fill up the entire 

 bay in a single season. Far from being an exaggera- 

 tion, this statement is much short of the truth. An 

 average Maryland oyster of good size lays about six- 

 teen million eggs, and if half of these were to develop 

 into female oysters, we should have, from a single 

 female, eight million female descendants in the first 

 generation, and in the second, eight million times 

 eight million or 64,000,000,000,000. - -^ 



