246 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Bear River Bay, and inferred from the data obtained and the testi- 

 mony of informed persons at the mouths of the Weber and tlie Jordan. 



Even should there be found a limited area where the density condi- 

 tions were such as could be endured by the adult oyster, it would 

 nevertheless be impossible to establish self-sustaining beds — that is, 

 beds annually replenished by young oysters produced thereon. The 

 young oyster is for the first few days of its independent existence a 

 delicate free-swimming organism, about ./o inch in diameter and 

 extremely sensitive to sudden changes in its environment. A density 

 variation of but a few degrees is sufficient to kill it, and the eggs are 

 not even capable of efiQcient fertilization in water differing very much 

 in salinity from that in which the parents lived. It can be readily seen 

 that with an organism so fatally responsive to changes of environment 

 there could be practically no hope of securing a successful set of young 

 oysters, and the bed could only be maintained by annual importations 

 from the seacoast. 



In Bear River Bay the character of the bottom and the muddiness 

 of the water are also unfavorable to oyster culture. On soft bottom, 

 such as is found over most of this i)art of the lake, the oyster soon 

 sinks and is stifled, a fate which also befalls it when there is a copious 

 dei^osit of silt, such as occurs where the muddy water of the river meets 

 the brine of the lake. 



At the mouths of the Jordan and Weber rivers the bottom is harder, 

 and the water at the time of the writer's visit was much clearer; but 

 during the high-water stage of spring the rivers deposit large quanti- 

 ties of silt on the delta, just where it would be necessary to plant the 

 oysters if it were attempted at all. 



In objection to the introduction of marine organisms into the waters 

 of Great Salt Lake, it was urged that even if the water were diluted to 

 the proper density the composition was so at variance with the compo- 

 sition of sea water that the result would be fatal to marine animals 

 placed in it. The following table shows the relative proportion of the 

 various salts per 100 parts of solid matter in sea water and the water of 

 Great Salt Lake : 



^ Dittmar. 



tWaUer, 1892. 



JTalmage, 1889. 



