OYSTER INDUSTRY IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 863 



The Ostrea glomerata assumes numerous forms in 

 various places (which fact was convincingly illustrated by 

 the exhibition of a collection from 70 different beds and 

 localities), giving undeniable proof of the wealth which 

 may be developed by proper legislation, administration, 

 and cultivation of the oyster-beds in N.S. Wales. 



A variety of the same species from Coffin's Bay, in 

 South Australia, is found in the Adelaide market, frequently 

 producing irregularly formed pearls of large size but of no 

 commercial value. 



Recent experiments tend to prove that the Rock- 

 Oyster of the N.S. Wales shores, which is left dry by every 

 tide, is only a variety of the Drift-Oyster ; and spat taken 

 from the rocks at low tides, when laid in beds always 

 covered by the sea, are said to thrive well ; and although 

 oysters may thrive on natural beds of mud and sand, when- 

 ever these beds are over-dredged the animals become 

 diseased by the infiltration of mud into the shells. Steamer 

 traffic over the shallow water-beds of the Hunter River, 

 formerly so prolific, has in many cases either deteriorated, 

 or completely destroyed them. These oysters only live a 

 few days after being taken from the water, and even when 

 freshly-opened the animal is of a dirty-white colour, and 

 quite unfit for food. The black mud stirred up by steamer 

 traffic, and brought down by the tides or " freshes" in the 

 river, infiltrated into the shell ; the animal, unable to get 

 rid of it, deposits a layer of nacre over it time after time, 

 until the shell becomes formed of thin layers of mud and 

 nacre, and the animal becomes exhausted, diseased, and 

 dies. 



That natural oyster-beds can be, and are, in fact, being 

 destroyed daily by over-dredging, and by traffic when 

 situated in shallow waters, in other countries as w r ell as in 



