OYSTER RESOURCES OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 351 
Hundreds of thousands of bushels of oyster shells have been dis- | 
tributed over the bottom of Long Island Sound in deep water, as | 
ceultch to which the oyster spat could attach itself, with the very best 
results. Strewing the shells of eastern oysters in the slightly deeper 
waters just outside the existing beds upon the tide lands, and in other 
parts of the bay, might furnish the lacking element in these waters— 
viz, fixing-surfaces for spat. Young oysters found in such situations 
could be taken up before the next annual appearance of the stingray 
and used as seed oysters in the customary way. It would seem that 
there are possibilities for oyster-culture in San Francisco Bay by meth- 
ods entirely distinct from those now practiced there. 
EBridences of natural propagation.—One of the first indications I had of 
the natural propagation of the oyster was the finding of young oysters 
six months or a year old upon beds where those three or four years old 
were kept. They were in most. instances attached to clusters of dead | 
shells of the small native oyster. Very few were to be found attached \ 
to adult specimens of Ostrea virginica, but this may be explained by 
the fact that such oysters are frequently handled and “laid out” to 
keep them well upon the surface and prevent any settling in the mud. 
The handling is done in order to select and clean the largest for market, 
the others being also cleaned of the ever-accumulating native oysters, 
which would involve the destruction of such small eastern oysters _ | 
as might be among them upon the shells of the large oysters. pi, 
The fact of young eastern oysters being attached to anything is | 
‘proof that they grew in the bay where they were found, for oysters do 
not ha have the power of fixing themselves : a second time. ‘All these small 
oysters ¢ are knocked off the large shells with a ‘small cleaning hatchet, 
and the operation is a necessary one, as the extremely productive { 
natives cluster upon the large species in such numbers as ae greatly 
interfere with their growth. 
In October, 1891, T discovered some oysters of large size in certain 
sloughs of the south bay, where they had long escaped the stingrays 
in consequence of bars which shut off the sloughs from all but the 
highest tide. These were the largest oysters seen at San Francisco, 
and had evidently lain there for several years. More recently I obtained 
a quantity of oysters, apparently two years old, in Oakland Creek. As 
the oyster beds maintained there several years ago by Mr. Doane, now 
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of the Morgan Oyster Company, have long since been abandoned and — | 
the stakes removed, it is evident that a limited number of oysters have 
found condi 
this muddy place. hey are no longer found on the mudflats, where 
they were originally. kept, but live in the mud of the channel, from 
which I obtained them with tongs. + 
Mr. Cieaveland Forbes, of the Spring Valley Water Company, 
_ 
ions Suitable for their development and growth, even in — 
informed me that several years ago he found full-grown eastern oysters | 
