52 
BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
The first European to speak of our Oysters appears to have 
been Champlain,* who, in “ Les Voyages du Sieur de Cham- 
plain, ” Paris, 1613, says that in Bras d’or Lakes, Cape Breton, 
there are many islands filled with a great deal of game and 
:Shell-fish of several kinds, among others of Oysters which are 
not of good flavor.” 
The next writer to refer to them was Nicolas Denys, in his 
•“ Description Geographique et Historique . . . de l’Amerique 
Septentrionale,” and his “ Historie Naturelle . . . de l’Am- 
-erique Septentrionale,” 1672. He tells us that good Oysters 
were found in the region of the Gut of Canso and the south 
shore of St. George’s Bay, at Malagash, (apparently) at Pictou, 
•at Tatamagouche and at Cocagne, and at Grand Pabou. Of 
Bras d’or Lakes, he says, — “ There are found there only some 
■Oysters which are not good when they are newly fished, because 
they are too fresh, but they have a property, which is, that 
•one is able to keep them nine or ten days without their losing 
their water, after which they are salt and lose their insipid- 
ness, which is caused by the fresh water of the rivers at the 
mouths of which they are fished.” And of Pictou River, he 
Bays, — “At a league and a half within the river, on the left 
hand, there is a large cove where is found a quantity of excel- 
lent Oysters; those in the passage are almost all round, and 
further within the cove they are of immense size; there are 
some found as large as a shoe and almost of the same shape, 
and all are very full and of good taste.” These extracts are 
interesting, as showing that the distribution and excellence 
of our Oysters were known over two hundred years ago; the 
beds have stood a constant strain since then. Denys describes 
fully also the method of taking them, which will be referred to 
below. A few references to them occur in books of the last 
century f and the early part of the present, and since the 
publication of the first of the Dominion Annual Fishery 
*Excepting the doubtful case given on p. 5, footnote. 
+ A curious error occurs in a little book, entitled, “ The Present State of Nova 
■Scotia, 1 ’ published in Edinbui’g, in 1787. It says on p. 119, that Oysters have been 
•discovered in Chignecto Bay, “ and are now become an article of export to several 
places.” 
