SUPPLEMENT. 1227 



with considerable effect against a young or weakened 

 oyster, and we believe that they will attack and easily kill. 

 At any rate, we have no fear that the fisherman will throw 

 the common whelks overboard again on to the oyster 

 grounds, as they can find a ready market for them on shore, 

 being generally allowed to keep them as a perquisite by 

 oyster companies. 



Whelks' eggs are often dredged up attached to oysters 

 and culch. In winter they may be frequently met with 

 thrown up on the foreshore. We have observed them all 

 the year round. Mr. Buckland stated that he found the 

 greatest number about the end of February. 



Class A. Subdivision B. 

 WEED, SABELLA, ACORN BARNACLES, &c. 



We have classed all these together, their action as 

 indirect enemies of oysters being very similar, except the 

 crowsilk, &c., on fattening grounds. Weed of any sort on 

 oyster-beds is objectionable, from the fine green slimy 

 weed that grows in the pits, on whose roots the common 

 periwinkle lives, to the cat-tail on cultivated grounds, and 

 the huge Fucus fusiculosus that is dredged up from the 

 deep-sea beds. 



Some fishermen believe that weed does not do any 

 harm : we have even been told that a weed called " cat- 

 tail ' does good, and in support of this a theory has been 

 advanced that seaweeds, like vegetables and plants on land, 

 exhale oxygen and consume carbonic acid gas. If living 

 seaweed thus tends to oxygenate the water, no doubt the 

 theory is sound ; but until this be more clearly proved by 

 practice, we are bound to state our opinion that, with the 

 above exception, all weed is objectionable ; firstly, because it 

 increases the work of dredging, and covers up the oysters ; 



