The Canadian Oyster. 155 



i 

 belt of cold water, so tliat although, the larvae could be 

 carried to great distances in the fortnight of their free- 

 swimming life, they are all killed off by the cold. 

 Consequently it follows that if in any place the Oysters 

 are destroyed or fished out, no natural rejstocking will 

 take place; and large heaps of oyster-shells where there 

 are now no oysters testify to the fact that this has often 

 taken place. In the natural home of the Oyster, the 

 coast of Virginia, the water everywhere is warm, and if 

 the Oysters are exterminated at one spot sooner or later 

 larvae from adjoining beds will settle and found new 

 colonies. It is supposed that the Oyster must have 

 reached Canada in pre-glacial times, when the water 

 was warm, and that the few colonies remaining are 

 remnants from the time when a mild sub-tropical 

 climate reached to Greenland. 



Now the great dangers to which the Canadian 

 fishery are exposed are over-fishing, and the use of 

 Oyster shells as a fertilizer. As the demand increases 

 so does the number of boats crowding into Richmond 

 Bay, and inevitably the oyster-supply will grow less. 

 There exists in the minds of the oyster fishermen a 

 tremendous prejudice against permitting the cultiva- 

 tion of Oysters, an industry which has reached great 

 proportions both in England and France. No more 

 unreasonable prejudice could well be conceived. It is 

 not for a moment suggested that the natural Oyster 

 beds should be made private property, but if permis- 

 sion were given to private individuals to control small 

 stretches of the foreshore now barren of oysters, the 

 expenditure of a little capital might lead to the forma- 

 tion of a new Oyster bed. The larvae, which are scat- 

 tered by the million from the natural beds, doubtless 

 settle ■ everywhere, but only when they reach a suitable 

 substratum can they survive. Suitable " spat 



catchers " as they are called are made by planting in 

 stakes of birchwood. The larvae, or " spat," settle on 

 these, and when the little Oyster has reached a size of 

 an inch or so in length it can easily be removed, and 

 laid in a sheltered pool, where it will fatten. The 

 Mic-mac Indians, who have a reservation on one of the 

 islands of Richmond Bay, collect what are called " seed- 



