THE OYSTER. 99 



Island. In 1855 Captain Henry Bell, of Bell's Island, 

 planted shells among the islands off the mouth of Nor- 

 walk River, and a short time after, under the protec- 

 tion of the new law of 1855, recognizing private prop- 

 erty in such beds, Mr. Oliver Cook, of Five Mile 

 River; Mr. Weed, of South Norwalk ; Mr. Hawley, of 

 Bridgeport, and others, went into it on an extensive 

 scale. Some of these gentlemen appear never to have 

 heard of any previous operations of this sort. Dis- 

 covering it for themselves, as it was easy and natural 

 to do, they supposed they were the originators; but if 

 any such credit attaches anywhere, I believe it belongs 

 to the City Island men. It was soon discovered that 

 uniform success was not to be hoped for, and the 

 steady, magnificent crops reaped by the earliest 

 planters were rarely emulated. Many planters, there- 

 fore, distrusted the whole scheme, and returned to 

 their simple transplanting of natural-bed seed; but 

 others, with more consistency, set at work to improve 

 their chances by making more and more favorable the 

 opportunities for an oyster's ^^^ successfully to attach 

 itself, during its brief natatory life, to the stool pre- 

 pared for it, and afterward to live to an age when it was 

 strong enough to hold its own against the weather. 

 This involved a closer study of the general natural 

 history of the oyster. 



** The first thing found out was that the floating 

 spawn would not attach itself to or * set ' upon any- 

 thing which had not a clean surface ; smoothness did 

 not hinder — glass bottles were frequently coated out- 

 side and in with young shells — but the surface of the 

 object must not be slimy. It was discovered, too, 



