348 
BULLETIN OP THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Ill tlie North the bulk of the food appears to be mainly the larger (and therefore 
more nutritious) Melosirce and kindred forms that occur often in ribbons and exhibit 
little activity in the water. The southern oyster from his forced altitude must needs 
put up with the smallest and most active of diatoms. 
(b) Fragments and reproductive bodies of seaiveeds. — Broken-off bits of seaweeds are 
very uncommon. Not a fragment of ulva was noted, and scarcely a bit of the more 
delicate red seaweeds. Occasionally will be found a slender, spindle-shaped resting 
cell of one of the (Edogonia . Zoospores may sometimes be noted. The little wriggling 
nematoid-like Spirillum bryozoon , Pritchard, has in some instances been found abundant. 
Later in the season oogonia of many forms will probably be found, as they are in the 
North. 
(c) Pine pollen. — Pollen of the cone-bearers has been found in stomachs from every 
locality examined (December to April), sometimes extremely abundant. It is undoubt- 
edly in early spring an important food element, a unique one, certainly. Of the enor- 
mous amount of pollen scattered in u sulphur showers” in so rich a pine region 
as Carolina, a large part finds its way into the water, floats for a day or two, and is 
appropriated in part by the ledge oysters as the tide rises. Another part becomes 
water-soaked and is ingested by the oysters of lower depths. The abundance of 
pollen may be noted not merely on the deck of rhe vessel, but even in sulphur eddies 
in the stream itself, as prominently shown in Parrott Creek. 
That this extraordinary food is of nutritive value is apparent in the changes in color 
and shape that the pollen grains undergo, caused without doubt by the process of di- 
gestion. In many instances where the protoplasmic contents of the granule have been 
dissolved out the outer corky layer of the cell wall ruptures in irregular fissures. 
With this fortuitous food supply so early in the year, the oyster can prepare for early 
spawning. The total amount of food, moreover, is by this increment rendered more 
uniform during spring and summer, the increase of diatoms in summer tending to 
compensate for the loss of pollen. 
AMOUNT OF OYSTER FOOD OCCURRING- IN SOUTH CAROLINA WATERS, AS 
DETERMINED BY ANALYSIS. 
It is of value in examining the oyster-bed water of a new locality to be able to 
compare its food-bearing character with that of a well-known oyster-ground as a 
standard, e. g., Great South Bay, Long Island (Blue Point), or the north side of Long 
Island, as shown in the New York Report of 1886. A comparison of fair accuracy 
may be made by means of water analysis. The test of a large number of South Caro- 
lina localities will be found appended. 
In determining the food value of a given water specimen the following method,* in 
brief, was adopted. A couple of liters of water were taken by means of the water cup 
from a foot above the bottom, aiming thereby to obtain a fair specimen of the oyster’s 
living medium. The specimen could not well be taken nearer the bottom on account 
of the risk of including the loose organic matter resting there, which would not nor- 
mally be included in the food of the oyster. If carefully collected, the water specimen 
when examined in the laboratory would, as a rule, be found to be free of floating 
organic impurities. Such a specimen wonkl now be agitated vigorously and allowed 
* The bacterio-quantitative method was early tried for this work, but was found unreliable. 
