248 



SCIENCE. 



LN. S. Vol. XVII. No. 424. 



A Review of Certain Attempts to Intro- 

 duce the Eastern Oyster into the Bays 

 on the Oregon Coast: F. L. Washburn, 

 State Entomologist, St. Anthony Park, 

 Minn. 



Eneomraged by the reported finding of 

 eastern spat in abundance in San Fran- 

 cisco Bay in 1890, it was resolved by the 

 state authorities in Oregon in 1896 to 

 attempt to induce the eastern oyster to 

 propagate in the bays of the Oregon coast, 

 and to that end an appropriation was se- 

 cured in the legislature, as was also the 

 cooperation of the United States Fish Com- 

 mission. The work was in charge of the 

 state biologist. In 1896 twenty-two bar- 

 rels of two-year-old oysters, and in 1900, 

 ten barrels, were shipped from New York 

 state. The first of these consignments was 

 on the road twelve days, and the second 

 eight days, but the oysters nevertheless 

 arrived in excellent condition, the loss not 

 exceeding a fraction of one per cent. 



Various means were resorted to to make 

 a success of the experiment. The oysters 

 were placed upon a portion of ground 

 which is a natural bed for the native 

 northwest coast oysters, and where abun- 

 dance of food could be obtained. Artifi- 

 cial fertilization was practiced and mill- 

 ions of fertilized eggs were poured into 

 the bays at different times. Oysters were 

 placed in floats and artificial ponds, and in 

 cemented tanks; in fact, nothing was left 

 undone which was within the power of the 

 biologist. Little or no results came from 

 these experiments. The strong, cold 

 northwest wind which prevails almost 

 every day in summer on the northwest 

 Pacific coast not only chills the surface of 

 the water of the bays, but appears to force 

 rate all the inlets an immense amount of 

 ocean water which has an average summer 

 temperature of about 55° F. and a salinity 

 of 1.025. The water in all the bays of 

 Oregon is quite cold on the flood tide, the 



writer having seen it change from 70° F. 

 and a density of 1.016 at low tide to 57° 

 F. and a density of 1.022 at high tide 

 within six hours, and this at a distance 

 of seven miles from the ocean. These con- 

 ditions of temperature and salinity and 

 such marked changes are all unfavorable 

 for the developing spawn. Only one or 

 two specimens have been found which were 

 undoubtedly hatched on that coast. 



Although these experiments in propa- 

 gation were a failure, the transplanted 

 oysters attained an immense size in a short 

 time, and were all of such excellent quality 

 that the importation and fattening for sale 

 of eastern oysters in the markets of the 

 northwest co^st offer inducements to cap- 

 ital. 



Some Recent Cytological Investigations in 

 their Bearing on Mendel's Principles of 

 Heredity: E. B. Wilson, Columbia Uni- 

 versity. 

 Abstract of this paper has appeared in 



Science, N. S., XVI., No. 416, December 



19, 1902. 



Provisional Program for Continuation of 

 Researches on Cave Fauna : C. H. Eigen- 

 mann, Indiana University. 



A Reconnaissance of Faunal Conditions 

 in Jamaican Waters: Hubert Lyman 

 Clark, Olivet, Mich. 

 Report of a recent visit to Jamaica, in- 

 cluding: (1) Observations of echinoderms, 



(2) variation in the genus Stichopus, and 



(3) an apparently new parasitic turbel- 

 larian. 



The three preceding papers were read at 

 a joint session of Section F and the Amer- 

 ican Society of Zoologists. 



On a Small Collection of Crustaceans from 

 the Island of Cuha: William Perry 

 Hay, Howard University, Washington, 

 D. C. To be published in Proc. V. S. 

 Nat. Museum. 



