Chesapeake Bay is now patrolled by the oyster fleets of both Virginia and Maryland, each State having an "oyster navy" to protect its beds from predatory forays; and occasionally there arises an "oyster war" which expands to the dignity of a newspaper sensation, and sometimes results in bloodshed. The wasteful methods of oyster-dredging are said to be destroying the beds, and they are much less valuable than formerly, although measures are being projected for their protection and restoration under Government auspices. We are told that a band of famished colonists who went in the early days to beg corn from the Indians first discovered the value of the oyster. The Indians were roasting what looked like stones in their fire, and invited the hungry colonists to partake. The opened shells disclosed the succulent bivalve, and the white men found there was other good food besides corn. All the sites of extinct Indian villages along the Chesapeake were marked by piles of oyster shells, showing they had been eaten from time immemorial. The English colonists at Jamestown were told by the Indians of the wonders of the "Mother of Waters," as they called Chesapeake Bay, about the many great rivers pouring into it, the various tribes on its shores, and the large fur trade that could be opened with them; so that the colonists gradually came to the opinion that the upper region of the great bay was the choicest part of their province. Smith explored it and made a map in 1609, and others followed him, setting up trading-stations upon the rivers as far as the Potomac and the Patuxent. Soon this new country and its fur trade attracted the cupidity of William Claiborne, who had been appointed Treasurer of Virginia, and was sent out when King James I. made it a royal province, the king telling them they would find Claiborne "a person of qualitie and trust." He was also agent for a London Company the king had chartered to make discoveries and engage in the fur trade. Claiborne, in 1631, established a settlement on Kent Island, the largest in the bay, about opposite Annapolis, and one hundred and thirty miles north of the James, which thrived as a trading station and next year sent its burgesses to the Assembly at Jamestown. CALVERT AND MARYLAND.