Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-07-27
BIOGRAPHY OF THE OYSTER.
Leaves from a NaturaIIst's Note Book.

Ernest Kagersou in Current.
Nothing is Of more consequence to the
people who live on the coast OF Long
Island Sound than the oyster and its cul-
tivation; and all intelligent people in this
region are interested to know as much of
his habits as it is possible to ascertain.
From his youth up the oysters part in
the struggle for place and sustenance
which engrosses almost the whole atten-
ton of the animal world, is entirely one of
self-defense. he maintains a strong in
ertia, closes the ports Of his fortress,
makes no sallies, and defes the adversary
to harm him by any means short of de-
molishing his walls. That achieved, he
has no further means Of resistance and
quietly submits to his fate.
To the enjoyment, in tr0ublous times, Of
this 0tilIDl cum digRitdte he is entitled by
a Yenturous youth, passed amid the dam
gers Of the deep, where foes without num-
Der lie in wait for tender innocents.
To begin 40 arc, the eggs of American
oysters are not held under cover of the
parent shells until they hatch, as is the
case with the European oyster, but are
discharged by the mother unfertiliZed into
the water, where, first of all, they must
await the chance of accidental impregna-
ton. which, moreover, must come within
a very short time if it is to come at all.
Enormous is the multitude Of these eggs.
DR.. Brooks estimates that 10000, 600 is the
average yield from each individual, and
that as many as 60,000,000 may be pro-
duced by single mother oyster. This
prodigious supply is needed to counter
balance the risks they are destined to run.
Says Prof. J. A. Ryder:
$50 numerous and effective are the adj
verse conditions which surround the mil
lions of eggs matured by single female
that only the most trifiing fraction ever
develop. The egg of the oyster being eX-
ceedingly small, and heavier than water,
Immediately falls to the bottom upon
being set free by the parent. Should the
bottom be oOZy or composed of sediment,
its chances of development are meagre
indeed. Irrecoverably buried, the eggs
do not, in all probability, have the chance
to begin to develop at ALL"
Nevertheless, few escape and hatch
out. ThereupOn begins a series of trials
for the life of each embryo, so severe that
it has scarcely one chance in a million of
surviving.
These embryss, when first Matched, rise
to the surface of the water and swim
there few hours, after which they begin
to sink, but two or three days may elapse
before they are prepared to become sta
tiOnary. This is the period of their great
est peril. Invisible notes, dancing a
whiriigig career just beneath the surface,
the gay young oysters are endangered by
the open jaws of every marine creature
| larger than themselves, and thousands
may sometimes perish in a single mouth
| tuI.
They run a constant risk from the
4 weather, also. During his study of them
/ on the Chesapeake, DR.. Brooks found
| that any sudden cold wind, or a fall in
1 the temperature, such as occurred several
| times during his experiments though
made in midsummer-would Kill every
| embryo in his care. How widespread
must be the destruction from such causes
in the open estuaries. OF the 100000
| eggs shed by one parent, perhaps half a
dozen may survive to be graduated from
this play-day into the settling-down stage,
which begins the third period of an Oys-
ter's life. How inscrutable would be this
! fearful waste of potential life, if we were
compelled to think of it as fOre-ordered by
the settled determination of a Creators
fiat; a scheme of reproduction unswayed
and unswervable by any altering circum-
stances.
Up to this point nature has left the
| young oyster unshielded, so far as can be
seen. There is no protection for him
whatever against the liability to be
destrOyed--n, perchance, he ever succeeds
in getting bOrn-nOt only through the vo-
racity by a host of marine animals from
sponges up to the ''leviathaa,o but also
by comparatively slight changes in the
air or water. We can fancy him quoting
the melancholy old soliloquy:
"If so soon I'm to be done for,
/ wonder why was begun for"
Nature has seemed to say: Let them &c
| It'll l will provide so many that, if one in
1,o00,000 lives through, it win be enough
to preserve its race from extinction
Thus, as it were, young oysters uncount
able are cast into the ocean to be scram-
bled for by a host of fishes and small fry
But when the minority that have es
capped destruction between the Scylla o.
ill-tempered water and the Ckarybdis o.
hungry mouths, are ready to asf1X them
selves to some solid basis where they may
remain stationary through life, then ma.
ture begins to help them. Heretofore she
has trusted in luck and the power of mum
bers. Now that the ranks are perilously
thInned she gives the remnant Of oyster
waits that persists, the rudiments oil
what will become an armOr for their pro-
lection, perceiyable as yet only by the
trained eye of the microscopist, for hun.
dred of these embryOs, side by side, would
measure no more than an inch.
The hours of the infant oysters swim.
ming are now over. The embryo sinks
slowly to the bottom. If it alights upon
ooze or a Shiny surface it smothers or dies
luckily, it strikes the cleaner surface OF
an old reef of dead shells, a rock, peb-
bic, or lately submerged stick, then the
pinhead of jelly attaches itself to a spot
whence it will rove no more.
Even before this time of becoming sta
tionary, micrOscopists can detect in the
simple organization of the little creation
the rudiments of the armOr Of defense.
These consist OF a crust of two pieces,
lying on each side of the body and Joined
over the vitals by hinge which permits
a slight movement; from them will de-
velop the future ''shells.'' Small as it is,
now that it has fixed itself for all time,
the little oyster must begin to breathe as
its parents did before it. ELike them, its
gills soon grow as little filaments covered
with ella, which cause tiny current of
water to pass in and out of the shell.
The readers Imagination may be here al
lowed to estimate the feeble strength of
that little current which is of such vital
Importance to the tiny oyster. and the
ease with which it may be stopped by a
very slight accumulation of dirt.''
This liability to smOthering is the first
| of his obstacles. Escaping it, he increases
in size rapidly, but his ranks are thinned
| by crabs and various small mollusks.
| Become large enough for us to find him
without the help of lenses, he seems
| merely a whitish, horny flake on the sur
| race OF his support, like the nail on the
little finger of babe. From now until
the shells get to be the size of nickel
| coin, and begin to look rough, the oyster
man calls him 'Eblister"-an expressive
| term.
If the affixture of the infant oyster Is
made in the midst of cluster of others,
! his only opportunity for growth is straight
upward by additions around the edges,
but most extensively at the ''nib" or point
! of the shell opposite the hinge; while the
| older part continually hardens and thick
ems until the maximum is reached. In
this situation both halves of the shell will
increase at about an equal rate and be-
come very similar, as one sees them in
! those long, narrow forms of wild oysters
from the surface of reefs, which are
termed by the fishermen {" strap" or
''stick-uD" or-in the .South-"coon'' oys-
! tiers.
| When, on the other hand, the bivaIve
attaches himself-accidental of course,
for, so far as we can see, this is matter
| in which the oyster exercises no choice
where he is not in close contact with
| others, and has room to grow in any and
| all directions, then the shells become
/ oro onH mona a,roUual Thof ono IN