[19] ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION OF OYSTERS. 759 



position of the embryo, with shell, to remain quietly at the bottom, I 

 came to the conclusion that if the artificially-imijregnated eggs could 

 be protected during segmentation, and the resulting embryos main- 

 tained alive until the shells were well developed, they might be deposited 

 on the beds with a fair chance of a large number, probably a majority, 

 surviving. To keep the embryos alive until they reached such a stage 

 was not a matter of much difficulty, nor was the deposition on any chosen 

 point of a bed an operation that could not be easily performed. The 

 only question was whether any decisive result would be obtained, or 

 rather whether it would be possible to ascertain positively that the 

 embryos had survived. Considering that there might be a large natural 

 attachment on a bed and that the artificially-raised embryos might be 

 dispersed over a somewhat large area, it appeared very doubtful if any 

 results would be produced upon an inspection of the beds. I thought 

 the chance however, of a successful issue sufficiently good to justify 

 my trying the experiment, and accordingly while at Fair Haven I fer- 

 tilized as many eggs as possible and deposited the embryos, in various 

 stages of development, on one of the beds owned by H. 0. Rowe 

 & Co., of Fair Haven. That the experiment should attain an obvious 

 success evidently depended upon the deposition of a very large num- 

 ber of eggs and it was my endeavor to furnish as many as possible 

 for the purpose; but owing to accidents of weather and apparatus I 

 did not succeed in placing on the bed as many embryo oysters as I 

 wished or had hoped to do. I soon found that in working on so large a 

 scale I lost a proportionately larger number of oysters than when fer- 

 tilizing the eggs of a few females for experiments in aquaria; but I suc- 

 ceeded in placing at one point some ninety million embryos, of which 

 fully one-half were well advanced in development. They were car- 

 ried out to the buoy marking the spot, by one of Mr. Eowe's steamers 

 and then lowered in a double-headed can to the bottom ; the covers of 

 both ends of the can were then removed and the young fry allowed to 

 wash out. As they were practically on the bottom I hoped they would 

 at once find points for attachment among the recently spread shells, 

 and that an inspection of the bed in the autumn would show that the 

 attachment at this point was sufficiently great, and above that on other 

 contiguous portions, to justify the assumption that the superiority was 

 due to the attachment of the artificially-raised embryos. Naturally, in 

 order to afford conclusive evidence, the superiority would have to be 

 very great; but even should such not be the case it by no means proves 

 that a majority of the embryos did not attach, as they might have been 

 widely dispersed by some unforeseen cause or accident. If any evidence 

 at all is given, it must be of a favorable nature. The absence of evi- 

 dence proves the experiment, but not the theory to be at fault.* 



* Since writing the above the author has received the results of the examination 

 made by Mr. Rowe, which are summarized as follows: The attachment of spat wag 

 general over the whole bed. It was noticeably larger at the point where the arti- 

 ficially-raised embryos were deposited, and was also larger along a line extending N. 



