II08 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



time (one or two days), when there is a considerable quan- 

 tity of spat in the water. As soon as it has fallen down 

 and the attachment has been achieved, the sluices should 

 be opened again to allow renewing of the water. How to 

 protect the young spat against the danger of suffocation in 

 a basin, where a considerable quantity of mud must gradu- 

 ally fall down, is a last difficulty for which there will hardly 

 be found a remedy, (j) 



Now to show that the French oyster breeding beds 

 are just as liable to failure (as Lord Montagu puts it) 

 *' from want of experience or carelessness," as our beds 

 have been and are, I will state on the authority of 

 Mr. Fennell, (/) that "The only instance of importance of 

 enclosed or tank cultivation in France, which was visited 

 by Mr. Francis Francis and his coadjutors was that of 

 Madame Felix, at Regneville. Her experiments proved 

 most successful. The enclosure is about ten acres in 

 extent. In this 11,000 oysters were placed and 11,000 

 tiles. The first year, 1864, the tiles were covered with 

 spat, some of them having as many as 103 oysters, and the 

 least of them about 20." 



In the opening (and, herein, omitted) portion of the 

 above quotation from his learned pamphlet, Dr. Hoek, 

 writing on " Oyster Culture in England," asks " Is basin- 

 culture possible or not ; and if so can it be practised from 

 an economical point of view ? " The three already men- 

 tioned attempts together with his own valuable opinion, 

 will partly answer that question. 



So far as regards failure, Dr. Hoek's explanation of 

 the cause may be accepted as reliable. But in connection 

 with Hayling Island there was and, through our present 



(j) " Oyster Culture." By Dr. P. P. C. Hoek. 

 (i) " Fish Culture." CasselVs Technical Educator. 



