ARTIFICIAL OYSTER CULTURE. 1057 



allowed it to appear because, incomplete as it is, it will 

 give welcome information to many biologists and oyster- 

 breeders, and will serve as a safe basis for the operations 

 of those governments which have within the limits of their 

 territories natural oyster-banks, which they desire to have 

 managed in the best interests of the general public. (#) 



. In theory, oyster culture seems so simple a 

 thing, that the wonder is there are so many failures at it. 

 But when we come to put our theory into practice, we 

 begin to find how many local circumstances there are, 

 apparently trifling in themselves, but which really exert a 

 powerful influence on our calculations ; and it is only by 

 many watchful observations that anyone can acquire suffi- 

 cient experience to be able to understand, and to cope 

 with the numberless difficulties which will beset the path of 

 an--oyster grower. ($) 



The territory of an oyster-bed (as the reader has 

 already been informed) is not inhabited by oysters alone, 

 but also by other animals. Over the Schleswig-Holstein 

 sea-flats, and along the mouths of English rivers, I have 

 observed that the oyster-beds are richer in all kinds of 

 animal life than any other portion of the sea-bottom. As 

 soon as the oystermen have emptied out a full dredge upon 

 the deck of their vessel, one can see nimble pocket crabs 

 (Carcinus maenas] and slow horn-crabs (ffyas aranea] begin 

 to work their way out of the heap of shells and living 

 oysters, and try to get back to the water once more. Old 



(a) Introduction" The Oyster and Oyster Culture." By Karl 

 Mobius. 



(b) " Oyster Culture." By Commander C. V. Anson, R.N., and 

 E. H. Willett, F.S.A. (Prize Essays, issued in connection with the 

 Great International Fisheries Exhibition. William Clowes & Sons, 

 London. 1883.) 



II 



