702 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



ally collected and sent into the market before the female 

 generative products have attained their full maturity. 

 However, this circumstance made it all the more wonderful 

 that still the so-called fall of spat had, during the last ten 

 years, been on the whole so considerable, the unproductive 

 years being generally more the consequence of other cir- 

 cumstances than of the absence of young oyster larvae at 

 the right season. 



It must, moreover, be specially mentioned, that after 

 the Yerseke bed had been withdrawn from public fishing, 

 no obligatory close time for oyster fishing was ever pre- 

 scribed. The lessees could dredge for their oysters at 

 whatever time of the year they liked. That they did not 

 generally do so in summer was, in the first place, for fear 

 of disturbing the growth, the delicate edges of the shell 

 being at this period more particularly liable to break ; and 

 secondly, because the oysters are found to be less palatable 

 at this time of the year. I hardly presume that they were 

 already convinced of the truth of Professor Huxley's view, 

 which he repeated in his lecture above alluded to, and 

 which I have no doubt is the right one, that a close time 

 for fishing on oyster-beds may be very serviceable ; but 

 that there is absolutely no reason to see why it should be 

 more so during the spawning time than either before or 

 after. 



The great thing appears to be to leave a fair portion 

 of the oysters on or around a natural bed, wholly undis- 

 turbed for a series of consecutive years. Now such an 

 arrangement was never carried out intentionally on the 

 Yerseke bed, every portion of it and of the whole eastern 

 portion of the Oosterschelde having been leased for pur- 

 poses of oyster-culture. 



