650 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



does not pertain to the living oyster itself. In no place 

 upon the sea-flats do oysters grow upon rocky bottom. 

 They grow best where there is a substratum of old oyster 

 and other shells. The most of them lie singly, and they 

 are seldom found growing together in clumps or masses. 

 The wide-spread notion that they are found growing 

 firmly attached to the sea-bottom, and piled upon one 

 another, layer upon layer, is accordingly false. Upon the 

 best of the Schleswig-Holstein beds, the dredge must drag 

 over a surface of from one to three square meters, and 

 often over a still greater distance, in order to secure a single 

 full-grown oyster. Over the Schleswig-Holstein sea-flats 

 there exist 50 oyster-beds of very different sizes. The 

 largest is not far from two kilometers long, but the greater 



number are shorter than this There are no 



beds upon our sea-flats which have a greater depth of 

 water over them than from six to nine meters. Although 

 all the beds lie within an area 74 kilometers long by 22 

 broad, yet the nature of the oysters, and especially the 

 form and solidity of the shell and the flavour of the 

 animal, differ very greatly. Upon two beds inside of the 

 south point of the island of Sylt are found oysters which 

 in fullness and delicacy of flavour are not inferior to the 

 best English " natives." 



WHY ARE OYSTERS NOT FOUND OVER ALL PORTIONS OF 



THE SEA-FLATS ? 



It is now clear that the fruitfulness of the oyster is 

 extraordinarily great, and that the extension of oyster-beds 

 over the entire surface of the sea-flats does not fail of being 

 accomplished from a lack of young oysters, but from other 

 causes. It then becomes our duty to investigate into the 

 characteristics of our sea-flats, in order to determine 



