FISHES OF HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 
529 
them up. Again, in 1893, the matter was taken up by Hon. John F. Colburn, of 
Honolulu, who writes as follows regarding his experiments: 
In the month of October, 1893, I imported from Mr. M. B. Moraghan, of San Francisco, three 
cases of oysters for the purpose of planting. Two of the cases contained about 1,000 Eastern trans- 
planted, and one case contained about 3,000 of the native California. They were brought down on 
the steamship Australia , in the ice house, and arrived in apparently good order. I at once had them 
removed to my pond at Manana Ewa, and planted in a depth ranging from 1 foot to 2 feet of water. 
Some three months after I made a thorough search of the different places where I had planted 
oysters, and found that the native California were all dead, and of the Eastern transplanted about 50 
per cent were still living, though considerably sunk into the soft mud at the bottom of the pond. I 
had these taken up and put down again, and some three months afterwards I examined them again 
and found they had started to grow; the new shell forming was easily noticeable. I continued my 
practice of taking them up at different intervals of time until the early part of 1895, when I was so 
elated with the prospect of my success that I made arrangements with Mr. Moraghan to send me down 
more Eastern transplanted, with two objects in view: (1) To have fresh eastern oysters to supply the 
oyster eaters of our city, and (2) to have them answ r er for the purpose of seed for propagating. 
I imported 38,614 from San Francisco by the steamship Australia having them come in five differ- 
ent trips of the vessel. About two-thirds were brought down on the open deck in boxes, and were 
wet down every morning when decks were being washed down. The balance came in the ice house. 
With the former way my loss was more in number, but the latter way was the most expensive. On 
deck I could get the oysters landed for about $10 a ton measurement, but through the ice house the 
charges w^ere 5 cents a pound for freight. 
As fast as the oysters would arrive I would have them sent down to my pond and laid out. In a 
month or so afterwards they would get very thm and be unfit for the market. However, I allowed 
them to recuperate by getting acclimated to the conditions of my pond as well as to the food. 
In the latter part of 1895 I discovered young oysters clinging to stones and dead oyster shells. I 
have watched them very carefully, and at different intervals of this year I have found more young 
ones. Of course, the young are not as many as I would like to see, still I trust that in time I will 
be able to boast of a bed of Hawaiian oysters reared from the seed of the American eastern oyster. 
From those I have imported I am in a position to furnish to those desiring oysters a mess of them fresh 
from the water. The last lot has been now about eighteen months in my pond, and are in fine and 
fat condition, having grown twice their original size. 
Fresh sea water empties into my fish pond through gates, and a large spring of fresh water. also 
runs into it, thereby making the water a little brackish . a 
During the last few years very little attention has been paid to the beds, and 
there are but few oysters left on them now, but in 1901 there was considerable agita- 
tion of the subject of oyster planting among some of the leading white and native 
citizens, with the prospect that the industry would be taken up and established on a 
paying basis. 
DESCRIPTIONS OF PRINCIPAL INTRODUCED SPECIES. 
Order NEMATOGNATHI. — The Catfishes. 
Parietals and supraoccipital confluent; 4 anterior vertebrae coossified, and with ossicula auditus or 
weberian apparatus; no mesopterygium ; basis cranii and pterot.ic bone simple; no coronoid bone; 
third superior pharyngeal bone wanting, or small and resting on the fourth; second directed back- 
ward; 1 or 2 pairs of basal branchihyals; 2 pairs of branehihyals; suboperculum wanting, or modified 
into the uppermost branchiostegal; mesocoracoid present; premaxillary forming border of mouth 
above, except in one family, Diplomystidse, in which the maxillaries also bear teeth; interclavicals 
present; no scales; skin naked or with bony plates. 
(i Report on the work of the Steamer Albatross, by Lieut. Com. J. F. Moser, U. S. N. Report of Commissioner of Pish 
and Fisheries for 1897. 
P. C. B. 1903—34 
