SUPPLEMENT. 1237 



TEIGNMOUTH. A good deal of granite sand comes 

 down from Dartmoor. From Newton comes the drainage 

 and refuse of the gas-works and a tanyard, making the 

 water there sometimes as red as blood. About two years 



j 



ago Mr. Baxter laid two cargoes of Irish oysters in the 

 river, on a Thursday. On Friday there was heavy rain, 

 and on Saturday they were all nearlr dead. The flood 

 brought down a lot of sediment, which choked or buried 

 the oysters. 



PLYMOUTH. A vast amount of mineral sand and clay 

 comes down by the rivers from the counties of Devon and 



j 



Cornwall. These deposits, coming into contact with the 

 chloride of sodium in the salt-water, fall on the shell -fish 

 banks and spawning-grounds, form an oxide, and destroy 

 the fish ! In these cases the whole oyster turns green from 

 copper, reddish-brown from iron, &c. ; and whenever an 

 oyster-lover meets such, let him not try experiments in 

 corpore vili. If the beard alone is green, as with the 

 Marennes and Roach river oysters, let him eat without fear, 

 for these are vegetable, not mineral results, and such oysters 

 in our opinion are the very best. 



If the oysters that have suffered from mineral deposits 

 are relaid down on clean grounds, they will gradually 

 resume their natural colour, and become again quite good 



to eat. 



Evidence has also come from Morecambe Bay, from 



Leigh, and from many other places, not excepting the 

 mouth of the Thames, to show that where manufactories 

 or sewage works empty their refuse, fish of all sorts have 

 been driven further and further out to sea ; and many tes- 

 tify to the fact that scarcely any fish will keep alive west- 

 ward of Gravesend until clear of London. (<r) 



(c) Anson and Willett's " Oyster Culture," pp. 24-48. 



