XXXVI.—ON THE REASON FOR AN EXTRAORDINARILY RICH 
PRODUCTION OF OYSTERS IN A NATURAL BASIN.* 
By Prof. H. H. Rascu. 
After repeated requests from many persons living in the counties of 
Stavanger, North and South Bergenhus and Romsdal, who, because of 
the great diminution of the oyster fisheries, had in the space of the last 
year invested considerable sums to re-establish them by the method em- 
ployed on the west coast of France, but always with unfortunate result, 
in the summer of 1878 I undertook a journey along the coasts of the 
above-mentioned districts. The object of my journey was made known 
through the newspapers. Shortly after my arrival at Stavanger, H. 
Gundersen, a custom-house officer in Egersund, told me that he knew 
a little lake (tarn), rich in oysters, which lies a few feet higher than the 
open sea close outside of it, which could convey salt water into the 
lake only during severe southwest storms combined with spring tides; 
the lake receives through a brook the surplus fresh water from two 
lakes situated higher. In the lake mentioned, which, because of its 
wealth of oysters, had from time immemorial received its name, Oyster 
Lake, is found, according to the informant’s statement, the same abund- 
ance of oysters fastened on the perpendicular banks descending into 
the lake and on the bowlders which have fallen down from them. 
The truthfulness of the informant was established by the large num- 
per of living oysters which he brought with him. Most of them had 
grown together in clusters or clumps a foot long, but they were easily 
separated from one another. Specimens of such oysters were to be 
seen among the individuals exhibited by me in Berlin, which ought to 
eall attention to the development of oysters in Oyster Lake. 
That I should, as quickly as possible, devote myself to this much- 
tavored lake is a matter of course, and, after I had a boat brought into 
it, I was able, with the help of a water telescope brought along, to sat- 
isfy myself that Gundersen’s report was not exaggerated. Because of a 
continued drought which had prevailed for a long time previous to my 
arrival, the quantity of water in the two higher lakes had diminished, 
the brook flowing therefrom was entirely dried up, while at the same 
time the great evaporation from the surface of Oyster Lake itself had 
* Translated from Nordisk Tidsskritt for Fiskeri, 1880, pp. 49-58, by Tarleton H. Bean, 
[1] 1037 
