644 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



the violence of the waves during high spring-tides, in- 

 creased by tempests, which oppose themselves to oyster 

 culture after the French method. According to him, at 

 the south-eastern shores of the North Sea, the lowest tides 

 always occur when the coldest winds are blowing, and a 

 low temperature of the water is much more dangerous for 

 oysters placed in shallow than for those found in deep 

 water. Moebius therefore thinks that the oyster production 

 of the German waters cannot be augmented by culture, but 

 that this can be effected in the first place by keeping a 

 sufficient stock of full-grown oysters on the existing oyster- 

 beds, and in the second place by ameliorating and enlarg- 

 ing the places fit for the fixing of the oyster-spat. 



" In the Baltic the percentage of salt is too low for the 

 oyster to live in. Of course there can be no question of 

 oyster culture there." 



Here and there, in this book, the name of Moebius 

 has been rendered familiar to the reader, and perhaps 

 aroused some curiosity as to its owner from the fact of the 

 late great German scientist being respectfully quoted by 

 such celebrities as Professor Huxley, Dr. Brooks, Lieut. 

 Winslow, Dr. Hoek, Professor Hubrecht, M. Bouchon- 

 Brandely, &c. ; and I have now great pleasure in intro- 

 ducing him to my reader through the medium of quota- 

 tions from Mr. J. H. Rice's translation of his celebrated 

 pamphlet, entitled " The Oyster and Oyster-Culture," (#) 

 trusting that the acquaintance may tend towards a due 



(a) Die Auster und die Austernwirthschaft, von Karl Moebius, 

 Professor der Zoologie in Kiel. Mit einer Karte und neun Holz- 

 schnitten. Berlin, Verlag von Wiegandt, Hempel & Parey. 1877. 

 Small octavo, p. 126. Translated by H. J. Rice, B.Sc., by permis- 

 sion of the author. 



