--_Illustrated London News_.
[Illustration: THE PYRAMIDS OF MEROE, ON THE NILE.]
* * * * *
THE PROLIFICNESS OF THE OYSTER.
In an article by Prof. Karl Mobius on "The Oyster and Oyster Culture,"
reproduced in the recently issued report of the U. S. Commissioner of
Fish and Fisheries, the author says:
A mature egg-bearing oyster lays about one million of eggs, so that
during the breeding season there are upon our oyster beds at least
2,200,000,000,000 young oysters, which surely would suffice to transform
the entire extent of the sea-flats into an unbroken oyster bed; for if
such a number of young oysters should be distributed over a surface 74
kilometers long by 22 broad, 1,351 oysters would be allotted to every
square meter. But this sum of 2,200,000,000,000 young oysters is
undoubtedly less than that in reality hatched out, for not only do those
full-grown oysters which are over six years of age spawn, but they begin
to propagate during their second or third year, although it is true that
the young ones have fewer eggs than those which are fully developed.
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