984 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 600. 



central cities belong to the American genus 

 Cambarus, which occurs in the United States 

 and Canada only. The Potomac supplies C. 

 affinis; Chicago, C. virilis; New Orleans, C. 

 Blandingiij and Montreal, C. Bartoni. Of 

 late, however, a considerable fishery has de- 

 veloped in the Pacific states where the cray- 

 fish are all of the genus Astacus and more like 

 the crayfish of England, France and Europe 

 in general. Erom the statistics of the Bureau 

 of Eisheries we learn that in Oregon 116,400 

 pounds of crayfish, worth $7,760, were caught 

 in 1899. The detailed tables, however, as- 

 sign 63,000 pounds, worth $420, to Clackamas 

 County, where they are taken in the tributaries 

 of the Willamette River along a stretch of 

 only a few miles ; 5,400 pounds, worth $360, to 

 Columbia County; 15,000 pounds, worth 

 $1,000, to Multnomah County; 15,000 pounds, 

 worth $1,000, to Washing-ton County; and 

 18,000 pounds, worth $1,200, to Yamhill 

 County. This would make a total of 165,000 

 pounds in place of 116,400 pounds. 



The center of the wholesale crayfish busi- 

 ness was Portland, in Multnomah County, 

 where the sales were 39,232 dozen crayfish, 

 weighing 117,696 pounds and worth $19,556.' 



The catch is made in the sloughs of the Colum- 

 bia and its tributary streams between March and 

 September. A large part of the catch is used 

 at Portland, with a considerable demand from 

 Seattle, Tacoma, San Francisco and as far east 

 as Salt Lake City and St. Louis. The average 

 weight is three pounds to the dozen. As pre- 

 pared for shipment the crawfish is placed alive 

 in a composition of white wine and spices and 

 boiled for about ten minutes. The crawfish and 

 liquor in which it has been boiled are next 

 packed in tin buckets holding from two to three 

 dozen each. 



Despite the incompleteness of the above 

 data it is evident that considerable numbers 

 of crayfish are sold and that they find a market 

 even in Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf states, 

 where they compete with salt-water Crustacea; 

 in San Erancisco with the spiny-lobster and 

 crab, in New Orleans with the shrimp and 

 in New York with the lobster. 



' ' Notes on Fisheries of the Pacific Coast in 

 1809,' p. 54.5. 



Tlie future of this crasrfish industry will 

 obviously depend upon both demand and sup- 

 ply. The demand should increase; with the 

 growth of cosmopolitan populations that ap- 

 preciate such food as is used in Europe; with 

 the growth of large populations too remote 

 from sea coast to obtain fresh sea food; and 

 with the increasing inadequacy of the marine 

 Crustacea to supply the needs of even those 

 consumers who dwell near the coast. Thus 

 the lobster industry has been strained till the 

 use of young specimens as food to take the 

 place of the exterminated large ones has be- 

 come very extensive. At present some mil- 

 lions of ' short-lobsters,' six to ten inches long, 

 are sold to summer visitors to the New Eng- 

 land coast and many more millions are used 

 as bait. 



No doubt, in time, the demand for crayfish 

 will exceed the natural supply and this in- 

 dustry will tend to run the same retrograde 

 course as that of the lobster, oyster, clam and 

 many more important fisheries till the real, 

 or assumed, value of the crayfish as food, war- 

 rants legislaitive control and scientific aid 

 such as alone makes possible the continuance 

 of more and more of our once ' inexhaustible ' 

 food supplies. 



Soon or later the supply of crayfish will 

 need to be made greater. In addition to 

 legislative restrictions and controls three 

 lines of work suggest themselves as suitable 

 for trial when the supply becomes deficient or, 

 if one is to profit by exjierience in other fish- 

 eries, now, before the supply is deficient. 

 Eirst the artificial breeding of native species 

 in the market region ; second, the introduction 

 and propagation of better species than those 

 naturally occurring; and thirdly, the improve- 

 ment in size and flavor by culture and cross- 

 breeding. 



Crayfish amongst Crustacea, like carp 

 amongst fish, lend themselves readily to pond 

 culture and breeding. Experiments carried on 

 here in the laboratory have demonstrated the 

 ease with which the young of G. aifinis can be 

 reared and have shown two facts of economic 

 value, namely, that the young reared from 

 eggs laid in the spring may become sexually 



