714. REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [32] 
delicious of delicacies. But in observations and investigations which 
have for their object the discovery of the methods and means by which 
nature brings these things about, such desires as these must not be 
allowed to have an influence upon our opinion; for whoever would have 
nature especially attractive, beautiful or useful, whenever he is in im- 
mediate contact with her becomes easily led away from the pathway 
of strict scientific investigation and lost in the dark and boundless ter- 
ritory of speculation. 
Nature accomplishes at every place just what she is obliged to accom- 
plish there with her united forces, according to the conditions upon 
which the development of the world has proceeded. Throughout her 
entire limits there are no such distinctions as useful or injurious. 
The terms agreeable or disagreeable, beautiful or frightful, useful or 
harmful, as applied to the workings of nature, exist only in the thoughts 
and comprehension of intelligent and sensitive beings. Yet very fre- 
quently we hear it said, when speaking of the fossil oyster-bed which 
now lies near Blankenese, below Hamburg, 80 meters above the level of 
the Elbe, that it did not make any difference that oysters should once: 
have lived there and produced young, of which only a small proportion 
should ever come to maturity, since no human beings were there at that 
time who could have fed upon them. 
Oysters belong to that class of animals which secures the continuance 
of the species, not by guarding the young for a long time, but by pro- 
ducing a vast number of embryos every season. They are able to pro- 
duce so large a brood that enough of the number will be certain to 
arrive at maturity to maintain the status of the bed, and supply the 
places of those old oysters which die or are destroyed; and this result 
takes place notwithstanding many of the young are destroyed by sand, 
mud, or unfavorable temperature, and many others are eaten before 
their shells are thick and large enough to protect them from the nume- 
rous enemies which live upon the same banks with them. ‘The number 
of descendants from any one oyster which thus arrive at maturity is 
so small even upon the best beds, where for more than a hundred years 
the finest and most productive Holstein oysters have been caught, 
that Iam persuaded no one would give credit to my words if I was 
not able to substantiate them by means of figures. In 1587, Frederick 
II, King of Denmark and Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, appropriated 
the oyster-beds of Schleswig-Holstein as royal prerogatives.* They 
* The public order by which the Ducal-King Frederick II took possession of the oyster- 
beds of the sea-flats along the coast of Schleswig-Holstein and Jutland, is printed 
by H. Kroyer in his work ‘‘De danske Ostersbanker,” Kjébenhavn, 1837, page 110. 
Translated into English, through the German, it reads as follows: ‘‘ We, Frederick, &c., 
make known to all by these presents, that since it has been brought to our knowledge 
that in the waters of the West Sea, in the fief of Ribe, a kind of fish called an oyster 
can be found and caught, therefore we have commanded our liege Albert Friis, super- 
intendent and guardian at our castle at Ribe, that he permit this kind of fish to be 
caught in our name and sent to us; and in order that a future lack of them may not 
occur, we forbid one and all, whoever he may be, from taking oysters or allowing 
