X. 



"MINE OYSTER'S" BATTLE OF LIFE. 



r I ^HE oyster is a creature whose battles are wholly those of defence. 

 -*- He maintains a strong inertia, closes the ports of his fortress, makes 

 no sallies, and defies the enemy to harm him by any means short of 

 demolishing his walls. That achieved, he has no further means of resist- 

 ance and quietly submits to his fate. 



To the enjoyment in troublous times of this otium cum dignitate he 

 is entitled by a venturous youth passed amid the dangers of the deep, 

 where foes without number lie in wait for tender offspring. To begin 

 db ovo, the eggs of American oysters are not held under cover of the 

 parent shells until they hatch, as is the case with the European oyster, 

 but are discharged by the mother, unfertilized, into the water, where, 

 first of all, they must await the chance of ac- 

 cidental impregnation ; this, moreover, must 

 come within a very short time if it is to 

 come at all. 



Enormous is the multitude of these eggs. 

 The eminent biologist, Dr. W. K. Brooks, esti- 

 mates that ten millions is the average yield 

 from each individual, and that as many as 

 sixty millions may be laid by a single mother- 

 oyster. This prodigious supply is needed to 

 counteract the risks they are destined to run. 

 Says Professor Eyder: 



"So numerous and effective are the adverse conditions which sur- 

 round the millions of eggs matured by a single female that only the most 

 trifling fraction ever develop. The egg of the oyster being exceedingly 

 small, and heavier than water, immediately falls to the bottom upon 

 being set free by the parent. Should the bottom be oozy or composed 

 of sediment its chances of development are meagre indeed. Irrecover- 

 ably buried, the eggs do not, in all probability, have the chance to begin 

 to develop at all." 



OYSTERS EGG, IMMEDIATE- 

 LY AFTER FERTILIZATION. 



