1106 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



will come to maturity, this will take place at a later age, 

 the quantity of spat produced by one of them will perhaps 

 be less considerable, and finally, what is to be feared most, 

 the spat itself will not be healthy. To prove the correct- 

 ness of this statement, I need only refer to what has 

 been shown by observations on the Dutch concessions of 

 the East Scheldt. The oysters distributed over the dif- 

 ferent concessions are by no means in such unfavourable 

 circumstances as those placed in enclosures ; yet for a 

 great part they do not grow up in the natural way ; nor 

 do in many places the bottom they inhabit and the depth 

 at which they are found quite correspond to that of the 

 natural oyster-beds. And what is the consequence of this ? 

 That everybody who bestows his special attention on the 

 matter is struck by the small percentage of mature oysters. 

 The great bulk of the spat which attaches itself to the 

 collectors on the East Scheldt concessions is not produced 

 by the cultivated oysters, but by the natural beds. These 

 belong partly to the concessions : they are the places where, 

 long before oyster culture was introduced on the East Scheldt, 

 oysters were dredged ; partly these beds are found on the 

 rock-masses at the foot of the dykes. 



Whilst it is not possible, I think, to bring the oysters 

 within a tank or basin under conditions similar to those of 

 the natural oyster-beds, there seems to be another way to 

 avoid this inconvenience. We have only to wait till the 

 oysters of the natural beds are mature, to collect a sufficient 

 quantity of them, and to bring them in the basin where the 

 collectors are placed. This method, however, seems to be 

 more effective than it is in reality. Oysters taken from the 

 deep do not endure transplantation in shallow water, and 

 soon die ; but, even when taken from water of about the 

 same depth as that in the enclosed basin, they will not 



