XC EEPOET OF COMMISSIONEE OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



an article by Mr. Eyder published in the Bulletin of the U. S. Fish 

 Commission, vol. iii, 1883, pp. 281-294, and it has there been shown that 

 in a pond 3 J feet deep and covering an area of about 50 square yards, 

 connected by a trench 10 feet long with Chincoteague Bay, it was pos- 

 sible to secure spat from artificially fertilized eggs, provided that the 

 fertilized brood introduced into the inclosure was confined by means of 

 a porous diaphragm of sand fixed into the trench, through which the 

 tide could ebb and flow, so as at once to confine such brood and also 

 exclude injurious enemies from enteriDg the pond from the open waters. 



Forty-six days after the beginning of this experiment oyster spat from 

 one-fourth to three-fourths of an inch in diameter was found affixed to 

 the shell collectors hung upon stakes in this inclosure. These results 

 have led to the establishment of small breeding ponds at the oyster- 

 cultural station of the TJ. S. Fish Commission at Saint Jerome Creek, 

 Maryland, where furthei^experiments in artificial breeding will be con- 

 ducted during the season of 1884, the condition there being now such as 

 to give every indication of the fact that we may reasonably expect to 

 meet with the same success as was had at Stockton last year. 



The set of spat during the season of 1883, as elsewhere mentioned, 

 was unusually large, the season being apparently an exceptionally favor- 

 able one. 



The work of the oyster commission of Maryland in revising the stat- 

 utes regulating the oyster fishery of that State has also been an impor- 

 tant step in testing the effects of restrictive legislation, and we may 

 watch with no small degree of interest the results of the action of the 

 Maryland oyster commission, the views of which have been enacted 

 into statutes by the State legislature. 



It may and very probably will be found possible to extend the north- 

 ern system of deep-water oyster culture to the whole of the deep-water 

 Chesapeake area, in the event of which the States of Virginia and Mary- 

 land should take joint action in framing a law or laws the object of 

 which should be to protect and encourage those engaged in the indus- 

 try. Systematic culture in the Chesapeake Bay can be made to produce 

 great results, and place that region pre-eminently abore all others 

 combined as respects the annual yield of oysters. 



The year 1883 has also been an unusually noteworthy one in respect 

 to the number of persons who have, as specialists or experts, contrib- 

 uted to our knowledge and life history of the oyster. In the front rank 

 among these must be mentioned Prof. Thomas H. Huxley, who gave 

 an address before the Eoyal Institution of London, May 11, 1883, which 

 was afterwards published in the English Illustrated Magazine, for Octo- 

 ber and November, 1883, in which he gives a remarkably clear and 

 readable account of the life history of the European oyster ( Ostrea edulis), 

 and with characteristic clear-sightedness gives expression to his views 

 as to what is to be done about the oyster question. 



The Dutch zoological commission has also been active, and prob- 



