378 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
The following figure illustrates the care with which the reservoir is devised to 
deprive the water of its sediment. The great dike, which rises almost 20 feet above 
the normal water level in the basins, is pierced at two points; one, opening on the 
seaward side (A), feeds the reservoir (B), the other (0) is the outlet of the pond (D) 
destined for the storage (and fattening). 
Fig. 3. 
The oysters, it will be seen, do not receive their water supply directly from the 
muddy canal, but from the reservoir pond, where the water from the canal, after 
standing twenty-four hours, has deposited sediment. The storage pond (D) is sub- 
divided as seen in the figure, and each compartment of the basin may, for convenience 
in handling, be emptied separately. The outlet gates, it will be noted, do not allow 
the water to escape directly into the canal without, but pass into a U-shaped canal, 
which, with boarded sides, is sufficiently deep to contain a reserve supply of water, 
intended for use in case the reservoir is in process of being cleaned. The main division 
of the storage pond (D) has a board bottom, raised a foot or two above the soil, through 
whose interstices the sediment shifts or is swept when the pond is being cleaned. Par- 
titions about a foot in height divide the bottom into alleyways in which the oysters are 
arranged. These alleyways serve to separate different grades, and are of convenience 
in the process of washing the oysters. The side ponds, fed from the main pond, are 
similarly arranged as to the partitioned alleyways, though the bottom is of concrete, or 
rather of a heavy foundation of concrete veneered with closely fitted firebrick. 
The management of these storage ponds is a simple one. The oysters during the 
dredging season (September 1 to May 8) are obliged to be brought to the station, and 
are at once transferred from the boat to the basin, to remain only until time of rail- 
road shipment. Improvement in quality of the oyster during this stay in the basin is 
not taken into consideration commercially. There are apparently no attempts at fat- 
tening, flavoring, or “education ” for transport, as practiced at La Tremblade. The 
ponds are daily filled and emptied, so that no time is given for the oyster food to 
multiply as in claire culture. In the neighborhood of Husum the low-lying country 
is suggestive of Marennes, in its rich sediment-bearing character as well as in the 
degree of salinity of its waters, and it would appear to the writer that experiments in 
well-managed claire culture (which have not apparently been made) might lead to 
interesting and perhaps important results. 
