INLAND FISHERIES. 25 



tlie bay ; iu 1900 tlie elam-set was small and the oyster-set exceed- 

 ino-ly heavy, so that nearly every available object iu the bay was 

 covered thickly with young- oysters. They were even a nuisance 

 from the fact that they covered over the marketable oysters. 



An account is given iu the last Report of the abundance of the 

 clam-set of 1899 and the means of taking the small clams at the 

 best size for sowing, one-half inch, more or less, in length. These 

 could be found in great quantities iu numerous localities, some- 

 times where they could not come to maturit}" owing to the shift- 

 ing sand. They were thickest on sandy points which, jutting far 

 out from the shore, were swept at high Avater by the tides. In 

 localities of this sort it was shown to be feasible to collect the spat 

 during July and the first of August by means of a sieve. As many 

 as ten quarts, twenty or thirty thousand specimens, were taken 

 Avith one hand-sieve in about half an hour. This method is satis- 

 factory, therefore, when the clams are thick and the soil is sandy. 



Artificial set. — There were several observations made a year ago 

 which, taken together, pointed to the possibility of obtaining what 

 might be called an " artificial set : " (1) The natural set is very 

 uneven in its distribution. In one locality over 20,000 clams were 

 taken from one square yard, while a few rods away, at the same level, 

 and in the same kind of soil, there were only a very few scattering 

 ones to be found. (2) The areas where the set was thick were 

 situated with peculiar relation to the direction of the tidal currents. 

 (3) It was found from continuous observation of the skimmings 

 taken at the surface of the water that from the last of May to the 

 first of July the free-swimming larv?e were always and every- 

 where present in greater or less abundance. (4) It was learned 

 from watching the free-swimming young which had been captured 

 that the older ones showed a distinct tendency to stop swimming 

 and to settle to the bottom when they came in contact with a solid 

 body or when the dish was jarred. The same tendency had been 

 noticed in the star-fish larvae when they Avere ready to undergo 

 their metamorphoses ; it is also true of some marine worms, e. g., 

 Amphitrite, and probably obtains in a large number of SAvimming 



