Daily Yellowstone journal., 1885-04-19
SOMETHING ABOUT OYSTERS.
A Lecturer Tells what ne Knows About
the Popular Bivsive.

the Popular Bivslve.
New York Times Report
The shell Of the oyster was next taken
up ~ hat is the me;ning, asked
Prof Albert S. Bickmore, in his lecture,
''of the back mark in an oyster she'll
II is sometimes called the heart mara.
That Is an error, as the heart is not
located there. The black mark is the
place where the muscles are attached TO
the she'll The shell Of an
oyster, us with the clam, is
brought apart by the elasticity of a
ligament. The moment an oyster dies its
shell opens, for the mechanical elasti-
city of the ligament is retained" The
black mark could be traced all down
through the shell as it was passed down
by the successive layers deposited from
within. The stomach OF an oyster was
pronounced highly complicated. None
of the biyalyes had anything analogous
to teeth, and the gastric .uce secreted
by the liver might be said TO contain'all
the properties of the gastric Juice of the
human stomach, the saliva and the bile,
and had great dissolying power. The
heart of an oyster is composed OF two
parts. The convolutions around the
stomach made the liyer-like organ seen
in oysters. A con, Diluted lortion out
side of the liver was where the eggs
were formed in the female.
There are males and females in
American oysters" was a statement of
the lecturer that was met with consid-
cradle interest, "but the common oyster
of Europe combines the two sexes. The
young in English oysters, he eAplained,
instead of being waited out TO 90 it on
their own account were carried into the
gills of the parent until they filled up
the substance, and it seemed strange
that the animal could breathe. The
young were about l-500th of an inch in
diameter They were kept in the gills
for some time, when they swan out
and began life for themselves. The
American oyster was about 1.250th of
an inch in diameter when il struck
out for itself. The babies had great
fondness for attaching them
selves to the shell of the mother, and
this fact has been taken advantage of
by cultivatOrs, who scattered shells in
the beds. The lower valve of an oyster
was always the deeper one A piece of
seaweed 10 which were attached thou
sands OF young oysters was shown much
enlarged upon the screen. Every one
of these oysters might have lived, for
the seaweed would disintegrate and each
would float of by himself. How many
young two parents could produce in a
season was matter of conjecture, for
they could not be counted. The num-
Der had been estimated from 1900, 00J
up to 100,0O0,000. An oyster would
grow, probably, in proportion to the
quantity of food which reached it. The
number of layers in the shell had no
connection with the age Of an oyster.
'Dysters have been cultivated for use
ever since the time of luxurious Rome,
said the professor 1T was in the lake
of Fusare that oysters were cultivated
when the buried cities were above the
ground. A canal was long ago cut to
the Mediterranean, and it is now one
of the most successful oyster establish
ments in Lurope."
Professor Bickmore said that great
banks of oysters once existed on the
coast OF Maine, and there was no reason
why they sho Ild not again, for further
north, in the gulf of ST. Lawrence, were
found oysters of a very large sic. The
garden of the oyster, however was
Chesapeake bay. The dimunition in
quantity had been one-third in three
years. The remedy was cultivation,
which could be carried On TO an endless
extent If everybody was allowed TO
go and rake of adult oysters they would
disappear, Just as in the Adirondacks
the trees we're going down How large
could an oyster be! In the mu-
scum was fossil specimen twenty
inches long. In closing, Professor Bick-
more spoke of the pearl oysters, and de.
seribed the methods of dredging and
raking for the hyalyes.