The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1869-05-30
AIRS, scrENcEs, ETC.

r.H |
'% ARTS, SCIENCES, ETC.
The Ouster.AThe oyster has q fixed
abiding place, and therefore cannot escape
it's enemies very we'll. 1t cannot move.
Wherever the young animal falls there 1t
must live and grow, or there it must die
and rot away. Hundreds of millions OF
Young oys sters perish, as may say, almost |
before they are born-that is, the spat may
he swept away by rough sea and fall on a
place SO thoroughly uEcongenial to It's
growth that the young ones all perish. AS
it is now pretty well known to even tne
general reader, the oyster emits ITS spae IN 4
the warm summer months, q hot temper
ture and moist condition of the at
mosphere being thought-but, as some
think, erroneousiy- -tolbe the most suitable
conditions for securing large spat.
AS has been said, the oyster is hernia
phrodite, and each individual yields n large
quantity of spat; quantity is here the best
word, as the animal goes on brewing ana
! exuding this matter, which naturalists call
spat, for many successive days. ~ iooAs
| like melted tallow, and is about the con
sistency of cream. whether the spat pe
itself the young of the oyster is disputed
fact, but the substance certainly contains
the infant animal, which, as seen by the aid
! of a good microscope, appears wonderfuiiy
perfect. The spat, or fatty substance, Is
| said to rise upon emission to the SURFACE OF
i
days, or, as some say, only for few nours;
then it falls to the bottom, and whether or
not a crop of oysters be obtained, depends
entirely on the condition of that fall II the
spat fall on q muddy bottom, then the young
animal is drowned in mud and lost. Ii, on
the contrary, the spat falls on a rocky or
shelly bottom, then great crop Will un-
doubtediy be the result, because that ls
lust one of the proper conditions Tor ln-
suring the growth of these animals. A spat,
it is obvious, may be tossed hither and
thither by the waves, and ultimately be-
, come lost. An oyster bed throws of a
greater or lesser supply of spat every year,
but none of it may, for the reasons given
above, be utilized.
, -Spawainq Habits of Fish. There is
scarcely q month in the calendar in which
. fish of some genus or other do not spawn
Some deposit their eggs on stone, brush ol
I aquatic plants, the ova adhering by q
glutinous substance which surrounds them
= Others, as the salmon family, excavatt
, their nests on graveily beds in running
. water, cover their spawn, and leave 1t tt
. the care of mother nature. Some, such al
: the stickIeback the sunffsl, the black bass
and others of the perch family, build nest
= : and stand guard over them. Others, in
y Guiding some species of SiluridG, known a
= catfish, have parental care for their young
. and lead them about as lien does he
y. .. chickens.
(; The time occupied in liatcbing thespawl
: also varies. That of the salmon require
from 4O to over 300 days, according to tn
J., temperature of the water; while the spawl
of a shad in water at rs deg, matches in 5
70 to 60 hours. The number of eggs produces
70 by different species vary as much as tn
a time of incubation. A Asalmon of 10 pound
u only gives 10000 eggs, or 1000 to eac
- pound of its weight; while good size
10 Goldfish gives / 900, 600, herring 40 to so
~ 600, and pound shad gives lOo, ,oOo. Bu
III nf nrnHncG
y fab. as it is food for fishes and Othe
ln AQUATIC animals. If all the fish eggs PR
y duced were Matched and the fry arrived 9
L 70 mature age the seas would- be SO full thi
9 .s they could not be navigated, and rivers an
"a lakes would be plethoric.-AmeriedR Ffs
~ Culture.
re- To Champagne Drinkers.--We hasten
re give publicity to a prospectus which hi
n reached us (uut directly, Rs may be sur
It posed) from an Ingenious and enterpfisin
- firm of Belgian chemists, relative to II
re manufacture of champagne. 'Messrs. IL
hout g. Co., of Liege, offer for the sma
ba sum of 100 francs to reveal the secret
"a Producing "grand MousseuX, first qualit
cR the fabric price being only from seven
Id eight centimes per bottle, in other wor
he the wine costs only I'D. quart; but as
on can hardly be supplied to customers -
to their own Jugs" the bottling, with cor
of and tinfoii, raises it's cost as an article
commerce to something like 23d. a bott
nd The estimate is thus made up :-Ra
he materials so francs; corks, tin, twine,
d francs; wages, one days work, fran.
so 1000 bottles, l6 francs per hundred, !
yas francs-total 240 francs per 1000 botti
ths 9 In selling the thousand bottles at o
so franc each, one realizes profit OF
francs" The composition OF the wine
The of course, Messrs. Lahout's secret;
'aS thew reveal is that it is produced by
cry cry fusion, is clear, very fermenting, has I
as taste of the true champagne wine,
nId betters in getting old" The arrears
I'm. this production, they add in their o
rly English, "can be transformed in excell'
60 vinegar, indicating, twenty five to twen wen
ing six degrees, capable to rivalise that
acc Orleans" And yet the invention does
ina appear to have made its way directly,
me least, into England, but the thought t
mn it may soon, do SO is somewhat alarming
DE Pail Mall GGSette.
TYRANNY OF EVIL HABITs.-He who
,aid struck his colors to the power of an