442 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. II., No. 34. 



public in other ways. Much iufoniiatiou on 

 the general topic was obtained bj- questioning 

 the fishermen, whose replies, though biassed 

 bj- self-intei-est, may be set off against one 

 another, and a residuum of useful facts ob- 

 tained. 





riG 1 — LOTVEIt SIDE OF TILE EXPOSED JTJLX 9-ATJG 2 

 (TWO-THIBDS KATURAL SIZE.) 



To our judgment, apart from the survey and 

 delimitation of many oyster-beds, the most 

 important results of this investigation are, 1°, 

 the determination of the approximate quantity 

 of oysters to the square j'ard over a great 

 portion of the beds ; and, 2°, the data in regard 

 to the rapidity of growth of the young mol- 

 lusks as indicated by the tile-collectors, and 

 the proportion of mortality among them from 

 causes not yet fully explained. The deter- 

 mination of the small moUusk Astyris, as an 

 enemj- of the infant oyster, though not con- 

 clusive, is of interest, and, if finally confirmed, 

 important. 



The determination of the number of oysters, 

 though as a matter of course approximate 

 onlj', is important as giving a point of com- 

 parison by which future decrease may be 

 measured bj' repeating the investigation in 

 similar fashion. 



There is no doubt that in a comparatively, 

 limited time the majority of the Chesapeake 

 beds will be practicall}' destroyed, so far as 

 producing oj"sters for a market is concerned. 

 Some forty thousand people will have to seek 

 emploj-ment in a different field. Probably, 

 under the circumstances, this is the best thing 

 that could happen ; for it is doubtful if anj' 

 less drastic medicine would have the slightest 

 effect on the population residing in the vicinity 

 of the oyster-beds, who, in the face of all the 

 facts, have persisted in setting themselves 

 like flint against anj' modification or check 

 on their career of destruction. The present 

 observations on the growth and surviving per- 

 centage of 3'oung oysters on the tile-collectors 

 would have been much fuller and more valu- 

 able, had not the oystermeu cut the buoys 

 adrift, stolen the thermometers and lines, and 

 destroj'ed such collectors as thcN' could reach 

 unseen, with the stupid notion that some reser- 

 vation of beds, or limitation of fishing, was 

 to result from the investigation. Twenty-four 

 bundles of tiles were set and buoyed between 

 Juh" 1 and 14, and bj' Aug. 1 all but one were 



FIG. "-. — 



(TWO-THIKDS KATUHAL SIZE.) 



removed or destroyed. Fig. 1 represents a 

 portion of one of these tiles, which was placed 

 in position July 9. On Juh' 19, when first 



