40 
NATURE 
| Nov. 9, 1882 
sumption of the oyster by the Indian tribes. The shell 
mounds discovered are of immense size, and the shells 
themselves reached a quite menstrous dimension; the 
animals were killed either by fire, or by smashing in 
the shell at the attachment of the adductor muscles, and 
possibly even by the opening of the shell by stone knives. 
In many localities north of Cape Cod, the disappearance 
of the oyster has been comparatively recent. Some 
ascribe this to the pollution of the water by mills, but 
Prof. Verrill thinks a change of climate may have had 
something to do with it. Oyster culture has been tried, 
but unsuccessfully, on this coast; a great business in 
“laying down” oysters is still carried on at Wellfleet. 
Coming south of Cape Cod, we find Buzzard Bay and 
Vineyard Sound, early known for their fine beds of 
natural oysters. More than a century ago, strict regula- 
tions were made about their take and export, but these 
beds would seem to be nearly worked out. 
The charter of Charles II. gave the colony of Rhode 
Island (1683) free fishing in every form. At one period 
large quantities of oysters were destroyed for the sake of 
the lime in their shells. Now statutes are in force 
specially guarding the mollusc, and the oysters are now 
yearly increasing in quantity and lessening in price, and 
over 960 acres of oyster-ground were let in Rhode Island 
in 1879. About one-half of the oysters raised are natives, 
and the other half are Virginia oysters brought to the 
grounds to be fattened. The probable amount of capital 
invested in this district may be about 1,000,000 dollars, 
and the yield and value as against this is about 600,000 
dollars at wholesale prices. 
The Virginia trade began some fifty years ago, when 
Capt Farran gathered a sloop-load of some 600 bushels. 
Now the profits of a single firm in 1856 were 25,000 dollars 
a year, When the native supply grew slack, very successful 
efforts at cultivation were made. Out of seven to eight 
thousand acres marked for oyster-culture in New Haven 
Harbour, only one-half are in use. One _ proprietor 
Operates on 1500 acres, and full details of the various 
methods of culture adopted are given in this report. 
Coming further south, the southern shore of Long 
Island was early famous for its oysters, and we know 
how the old blue point oysters were relished by the 
Dutch settlers. In 1853 they were sold for an average of 
ten shillings a hundred from the beds. In 1873 Count 
Pourtales called attention to their getting scarce, and 
since 1879 it has required an importation of 100,000 
bushels of seed to keep up thesupply. This seed then had 
only to be gathered, or was worth but little, now its price 
has increased threefold. The principal market now-a- 
days for these Blue Points is Europe. In the markets of 
London they commanded a high price, retaining their 
supremacy over all other sorts, until in 1879 when the 
season being a bad one, the oysters grown in Staten Island 
Sound surpassed them. Not only are they of a superior 
flavour, but they have a round thin shell, and are of a 
medium size. The Rockaway district supplies an immense 
quantity of oysters; it is but the western end of the south 
shore of Long Island. While most of the stock finds its 
way to New York, lately the oysters from this district have 
found their way into the European market, selling as 
“French” stock. In New York Bay the growth of trans- 
planted oysters is fairly rapid, and a great many are sent 
from there to Europe. In New York City the oyster trade 
is of very considerable importance, which centres itself 
in two localities at the foot of Broome Street, East River, 
and of West Tenth Street, North River. The quantities 
handled each year in the city has been approximately 
estimated as about 765,000,000 oysters. A large number 
go to England, where the “Blue Points’’ having lost 
favour, the “ East Rivers” and “ Sounds”’ have taken, in 
a measure, their place. Between October 9, 1880, and 
May 14, 1881, being one season, there was exported from 
New York to Europe a total of 70,768 barrels, of which 
68,140 barrels went to Liverpool. Each barrel contained 
on an average 1200 oysters. 
Along the New Jersey shore a large quantity of oysters 
are raised, and the western shore of Delaware Bay is the 
scene of planting the southern oysters, which are brought 
annually from the Chesapeake, and are fattened for the 
markets of Philadelphia. This city is credited with an 
intake of oysters, amounting in 1880 to about 800,000,000, 
but then, unlike New York, this quantity is not wholly 
consumed in Philadelphia, but is in part distributed to 
the surrounding regions, but the calculation has been 
made that this million-peopled city consumes on an 
average during half the year, 300,000,000. The retail 
trade gives employment to over 3500 people. 
The oyster fisheries of Maryland are among the most 
important in America, and it is claimed that the beds of 
Chesapeake Bay, about equally divided between the two 
States of Maryland and Virginia, contain the best oysters 
inthe world. The oyster trade of this region is immense, 
giving employment to thousands. A body of police, with 
a steamer and two tenders, with eight sloops, watch hourly 
over the grounds, but the territory to be watched is so 
vast—the beds of Maryland extend for a distance of 125 
miles—that the police sometimes fail to catch illegal 
dredgers, and serious encounters, as in the winter of 1879- 
80, have occurred. 
It cannot be too often asserted that even the splendid 
beds of this district may, by unrestricted dredging, become 
exhausted. Properly protected and cared for, this wealth 
might be increased manyfold. Thirty years ago we read, 
the depletion of the beds at Pocomoke Sound and in 
Tangier seemed a thing impossible, now from want of a 
period of rest they have fallen off in their produce, the 
former by four-fifths, the latter by two-thirds. The 
statistics of this great fishery extends over many pages. 
It was at Baltimore the “steamed” oyster trade began, 
and this city, the great oyster market of the United States, 
backs more of this mollusc than any other city in the 
world. 
In North Carolina the business in oysters and their 
culture is of small proportions, and not much is known of 
the fisheries of Georgia. Of the oyster interests in 
Florida there is little to be said. Coming to the Gulf of 
Mexico, the Mobile supply must be noted, as they have a 
high reputation for excellence. The New Orleans 
market is supplied from an extent of coast comprising 
the whole water front of North Mississippiand Louisiana. 
Appended to this report there is a condensed account 
of the anatomy and development of the oyster, taken 
from the memoir of Dr. W. K. Brooks, of the John Hopkins 
University of Baltimore, and accompanied by a full 
series of drawings of the growth of the young oyster. 
NOTES 
THE following is the list of names nominated for the Council 
of the Royal Society to be balloted for on November 30 :— 
President, William Spottiswoode, M.A., D.C.L., LL.D. 
Treasurer, Johu Evans, D.C.L., LL.D. Secretaries: Prof. 
George Gabriel Stokes, M.A., D.C.L., LL.D., Prof. Michael 
Foster, M.A., M.D. Foreign Secretary, Prof. Alexander 
William Williamson, LL.D. Other Members of the Council: 
Prof. W. Grylls Adams, M.A., F.C.P.S., John Ball, M.A. 
F,R.A.S., Thomas Lauder Brunton, M.D., Sc.D., Prof. Hein- 
rich Debus, Ph.D., F.C.S., Francis Galton, M.A., F.G.S., 
Prof. Olaus Henrici, Ph.D., Prof. Thomas Heary Huxley, 
LL.D., Prof. E. Ray Lankester, M.A., Prof. Joseph Lister, 
M.D., Prof. Joseph Prestwich, M.A., F.G.S., Prof. Osborne 
Reynolds, M.A., Prof. Henry Enfield Roscoe, B.A., LL.D., 
Marquis of Salisbury, K.G., M.A., Osbert Salvin, M.A., 
F.L.S., Warington W. Smyth, M.A., F.G.S., Edward James 
Stone, M.A., F.R.A.S. 
