1040 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



the course of the current, and he likened them to Virgil's 



boatman :- 



" Si brachia forte remisit, 

 Atque ilium in prseceps prono rapit alveus amni." 



Currents also form eddies, both in rivers and in the 

 open sea : where there is a bend in a river, an eddy generally 

 forms on the inside of the curve, and here the spat can float 

 up and down, and, being thus detained, has a better chance 

 of resting. 



Upon a large scale this eddy theory is very important ; 

 one of the reasons why oysters breed, or rather used to 

 breed, so abundantly in the deep bays on the west coast of 

 Ireland Kilkerran and Birterbuy bays, county Galway, 10 

 take two examples, is that innumerable eddies and currents 

 are formed by the many islands in these bays. 



In Cancale Bay, and on the west side of the He de Re, 

 there are natural beds of oysters outside in the sea, and the 

 spat is brought inshore by the currents and deposited either 

 on the pares, which are made on the foreshore, as low as 

 possible, or in very shallow water, from whence it is dredged 

 up by hand. 



NATURE OF THE SEA-BOTTOM. 



The nature of the sea-bottom involves another question 

 than that already treated of under the head of enemies, in 

 relation to deep-sea beds ; it is that if oysters fall on rocky 

 or uneven bottom, and survive, they are practically lost, as 

 it is impossible to dredge them up from these grounds, the 

 bottom being called too "fasty" to be worked, i.e., that 

 the dredges catch fast at the bottom, and are either capsized 

 or lost. 



If the sea-bottom round the Channel Islands were but 

 as smooth as the North Sea, and the North Sea had as 



