The Northern Oyster Field 175 



ever, many forms that inhabit the cold and warm waters 

 alike, and among them are the oyster and the soft 

 clam. 



At the present time the " wild " oyster is practically ex- 

 tinct north of the cape, a circumstance that might lead one 

 to believe that these icy northern waters are not congenial 

 to it, and there is much foundation for such a belief. 

 Its growth and reproduction are much more rapid in 

 warmer waters, but are not impossible in some of the 

 sheltered bays even of Maine. A quarter of a century 

 ago a few scattered oysters, the descendants of native an- 

 cestors, were known to exist a few miles up from the 

 mouth of the Piscataqua River in New Hampshire, and 

 it is possible that some of them still remain. It is also 

 true that the oyster has existed and may be found even 

 to-day farther north than the extent of our coast. In 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence lies Prince Edward Island, and 

 between it and the shore to the south is the shallow 

 Northumberland Strait. At the mouths of many of the 

 small rivers entering this, both on the mainland and on 

 the island, are oyster beds of considerable size. 



This fact alone would suggest that at one time natural 

 oyster beds connected this isolated northern region with 

 those south of Massachusetts Bay, and many interesting 

 facts, especially those collected by Mr. Ernest Ingersoll, 

 substantiate that theory. It is perfectly certain that for 

 a long time before the first Europeans visited this con- 

 tinent, oysters flourished at a few points on the north 

 New England coast, and that they were still abundant 

 at the time of the arrival of the early colonists. 



Our knowledge of the matter comes largely from 

 numerous mounds of oyster shells that dot the shore. 

 Such ancient collections, found in many parts of the 



