194 Tf^E OYSTER. 



The regrowth of such a bed is, therefore, exactly 

 like the original formation of a natural bed, and it 

 must be a very slow process indeed ; how slow it is 

 very difficult to say, as we have very little information 

 which will help us to decide, although we have facts to 

 show that a century may not be long enough. 



When New England was settled there were very 

 many valuable beds between Cape Cod and the north- 

 ern limit of our coast. Many of these beds were 

 destroyed so long ago that we have no records of the 

 date when they ceased to be productive, and others 

 were yielding oysters about one hundred years ago. 

 There are still a few scattered oysters at certain points 

 on the coast, and we may be sure that the conditions 

 are still favorable, but there is no evidence to show 

 that any of these beds have become restocked, although 

 some of them have certainly been untouched for two 

 hundred years or more. It is possible that the beds 

 which were discovered by the United States Coast 

 Survey in 1874, near Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 

 have grown there since the oysters were exterminated, a 

 hundred years before. This region was renowned 

 among the Indians for its oysters, and in 1697, a river 

 emptying into the bay was known as Oyster River. One 

 hundred years ago a number of vessels were loaded with 

 oysters there, but since that time the region has yielded 

 no oysters until 1874, when the officers of the United 

 States Coast Survey found about a dozen large beds or 

 clusters of beds in about ten feet of water. 



It is impossible to state whether these beds occupy 

 the place of the beds which were exterminated a cen- 

 tury ago, but it is probable that most of the old beds 



