Sneehaateee, 
350 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
Large numbers of shells were found honeycombed by the boring: 
sponge. 
The starfish has never proved troublesome to the oyster beds of the 
bay, and, in fact, is seldom found upon them. It is doubtful if it occurs, 
except asa ciao farther south in the bay than the wharves of 
San Francisco and Oakland, and requires no special mention in this 
connection, as its presence upon a bed would be readily detected at 
low water, when stray specimens would be picked off by hand and dis- 
posed of effectually. The origmal bedding-grounds for oysters at 
Sausalito, being so close to the sea, were sometimes visited by starfish, 
but they were not considered troublesome. 
Preparation of ground for laying out the oysters.—The mudflats are 
always more or less prepared for oyster-ground by gangs of workmen, 
who level the surface by removing the elevations and filling in the 
depressions. This is done, of course, when the proposed oyster bed is 
laid bare at low tide. There seems to be very little improvement of 
the ground by the use of old shells of the eastern species. Mr. Mor- 
aghan returns the shells from his restaurant stands in the California 
market in San Francisco to his beds at Millbrae, but he uses them for 
filling depressions, and does not distribute them over the beds as 
spat- collectors, . 
Fixation of spat. —Not dine are the chances for the fixing of spat 
diminished by the use of ground in some places where there are very 
few old shells upon the bottom, but almost all of the shells of Ostrea 
virginica are returned from the marketmen to the principal oyster com-— 
pany, who sell them for the manufacture of lime, instead of using them 
for the improvement of the beds. These shells of eastern oysters, if 
returned to the beds where they were grown, or to other portions of 
the bay, would certainly increase the chances for the fixation of spat 
set free from the beds where adult oysters are growing. It is probable 
that careful attention to this matter of increasing the fixing surface 
required by the young oyster might make just the difference between 
rapid self-propagation and the present slow increase. on 
So far as has been ascertained, no recent attempt has books 
anyone to collect the spat of Ostrea virginica in San Francisco Bay, 
and it is evident that the prevailing impression that there is no propa- 
gation of the species here is not founded upon conclusions based upon 
actual investigations. Previous to my first examination of the oyster 
beds, a gentleman as keenly alive to matters of public interest as any- 
one in California, and a member of the original Tide Lands Commission, 
said to me, “You will find that the oyster does not propagate here.” 
A general impression had simply grown into a widespread belief. With 
the exception of a few persons connected with the management of the 
oyster business, the men employed in the industry know little of the 
; subject outside of t of the hades a methods es in California, 
ates ee 
. 
