up.

At St. Anthony a woman's foot was amputated, and in two days the patient was talking of "getting "Meantime a komatik had arrived in haste from a point on the northwest coast, a settlement one hundred twenty miles distant. The doctor was needed there and the doctor went.

On a stormy day of last July, Dr. Grenfell carried many bundles ashore at Cartwright, in Sandwich Bay of the Labrador. The wife of the Hudson Bay Company's agent exclaimed with delight when she opened them. They were Christmas gifts from the children of the "States" to the lads and little maids of that coast. With almost all, there came a little letter addressed to the unknown child who was to receive the toy; the letters were filled with loving words, with good wishes coming from warm little hearts. The doctor never forgets the Christmas gifts. He is the St. Nicholas of that coast. The wife of the agent stowed away the gifts until the proper time should come for their distribution.

"It makes them very happy," she said.

Thus and all the time, in storm and sunshine, summer and winter weather, Grenfell of the Deepsea Mission goes about doing good; if it's not in a boat, it's in a dog-sled. He is what he likes to call "a Christian man." But he is also a hero-at once the bravest and the most useful man I know.

THE OYSTER INDUSTRY

Here is a selection taken from an encyclopaedia. If you were reading it in connection with your geography work, this is what you should do: as you read, jot down the main points concerning the oyster industry which are new to you and add the new facts to what you already know.

The most valuable single product of the fishing industry is the lowly oyster. Upwards of ten billion of them are sold every year as food to the people of twenty-five countries.

Description. The oyster is a denizen of salt water, thriving best in quiet, shallow inlets. The shell of the oyster, which forms a little house for it to live in, consists of two parts called valves, which are fastened at one end by a hinge. These valves can open about half an inch as the inmate desires. In its natural state the oyster rests on its left valve which is larger and thicker than the right one. Usually it attaches itself by this left valve to a rock or other object on the sea bottom, remaining fixed for life, and sometimes several oysters lie fixed to one another. If it so happens that there are too many in one group, or bed, the under ones may sink into the mud and die of starvation or suffocation.

Every oyster shell is lined with a fold of muscle called a mantle, which grows from each side of the body. The limy substance that makes up the shell is secreted in layers by the mantle, that on the inside being called mother-of-pearl. Anyone who examines the outside of an old oyster shell can see the succession of layers overlapping like shingles on the roof of a house. As each layer represents a season's growth, the age is judged by the thickness of the shell. It is claimed that an oyster, if left undisturbed, may live to be one hundred years old. Sometimes a grain of sand or other rather hard object becomes lodged on the inside of the shell. In such cases, to protect itself from irritation, the oyster secretes mother-of-pearl over the object and in due time a pearl is formed. The oysters that are famed as pearl makers, however, are not the edible species of the north temperate zone, but are found in the tropics.

Although the oyster has no head, being all body, it has a mouth, consisting of a funnel-shaped opening at the narrowest part of the body. This mouth is provided with minute finger-like projections, which select from the water the myriad plant and animal organisms on which the oyster feeds. In the breeding season, it has no scruple about eating its own eggs, to say nothing of the "small fry." However, as a female oyster produces on an average at least 9,000,000 eggs in a season, one may excuse her unseemly appetite.

This interesting animal has a good-sized stomach,

two pairs of gills-for breathing, heart, liver, and intestines; but is minus ears, nose, and eyes. Neither has it any feet, for it never walks or changes its home.

How It Grows. Oyster eggs are yellowish in color, and so minute that a mass of them would look like so much thick cream. A newly hatched oyster is about the size of the point of a needle; it is able to swim about freely by means of hair-like growths, or cilia. Soon the primitive shell is formed, and the little animal sinks to the bottom of the sea and attaches itself to a solid object, to develop into a real oyster. In a month a young oyster is about the size of a pea; at the end of a year it is as large as a silver quarter; and after that, it grows about an inch a year until it reaches full size at the end of three or four years. So many other animals prey upon oysters that they would become extinct if such countless numbers of eggs were not produced. When the swimming larvae reach the surface, they are gulped down by fish at the rate of several thousand a second, and after they begin life as fixed objects on the sea floor, they are attacked by starfish and other hungry marine enemies. One scientist has figured that a newly hatched oyster has one chance in 1,145,000 to obtain adult size.

Oyster Fishing. The popularity of the oyster as a table food is responsible for an industry of gigantic proportions. The oyster beds of the coast waters of Eastern United States, especially those of Chesepeake Bay, are among the most productive in the

world. In America, oyster fishing is carried on from Maine to Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico, in San Francisco Bay, and in the coast water of Oregon and Washington. Baltimore is the chief market for the industry, and Chesepeake Bay is the most extensive area producing oysters. Maryland, Virginia, Connecticut, Louisiana, Georgia, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, and Rhode Island annually produce 1,000,000 bushels each; the total catch for the entire country has for many years been over 30,000,000 bushels a year, valued at $15,000,000. Maryland and Virginia together produce annually nearly 12,000,000 bushels from both public and private beds. The oyster industry is by far the leading branch of the fisheries of the United States.

In the middle latitudes the oyster harvesting season occurs during the fall and winter. In shallow waters the shells are scooped up from the sea with huge tongs or pincers, that open and shut like shears, but in deeper waters the catch is obtained by means of great dredges, operated by hand, or steam power. The business of preparing oysters for the market requires thousands of workmen. Oysters that are to be shelled, or "shucked" are placed with the edge of the shell on a chisel blade which is fixed on a block. With a sharp blow from a wooden mallet, the shucker cuts the shell through and then slipping a broad bladed knife into the gap, he lays the two valves out flat. The muscle which joins the fleshy body to the shell is next severed, and the naked oyster is ready