SUPPLEMENT. 1233 



the muddy sand during winter, where it can lie close, and 

 get protected from gales and their effects on the rolling 

 gravel. 



There appears to be no doubt that in winter the brood 

 are more difficult to dredge up, and the ground becomes 

 very much harder in cold weather, particularly on such 

 parts of the Whitstable Flats where there is only from 

 six to eight feet of water at low tide. It has been stated 

 that oysters bury themselves and hibernate in the winter ; 

 the foregoing may partly account for the tradition. 



FRESH WATER AND RAIN. 



Fresh water does no harm in moderation ; when mixed 

 with sea-water quite the reverse, as oysters, when young, 

 appear to fatten and grow more quickly where they are 

 subject to the effects of numerous fresh-water deposits, but 

 with too much fresh water the fish of the oyster increases 

 in size, and becomes fat and flabby eventually ; the oyster 

 gapes and dies, or, as an old fisherman said, they " busts 

 theirselves open." 



Sea-water fish, with the exception of the salmon and 

 a few others adapted for the change, transferred to fresh 

 water, quickly die. It is therefore dangerous to make 

 oyster-pits or beds where they are liable to being sub- 

 merged in fresh-water floods, or what are called " freshets," 

 Ousters will live much longer out of the water, if placed on 

 their deep shells and covered with seaweed, than when, as 

 is usually the case in London, they are placed in tubs of 

 fresh water ; salt and oatmeal only make the water less 

 suitable for them. 



There is a saving amonsr oyster-culturists that a fall of 



O o * 



rain is a good thing to settle the spat, and in those years 



