OYSTER CULTURE IN HOLLAND. 703 



Continuing our investigations as to the source from 

 whence the spat might be naturally derived, we were thus 







led to suppose that natural beds of a certain extent were 

 present in the western portion further seaward. Dredgings 

 were undertaken by means of a government steamer, but 

 they gave a negative result, and this coincided with what 



* 



had already been told us by fishermen, i.e., that no such 

 natural beds existed. 



One day, the idea occurred to us, that we were looking 

 the wrong way, and that what we were searching for was 

 much closer to us than we expected. 



The fact is, and hitherto I have not yet mentioned it, 

 that a regulation which has been rather strictly attended 

 to, and which had originally been proposed by those 

 government departments that are in charge of the main- 

 tenance of the dykes defending the country against inva- 

 sions from the sea, runs thus : it is not allowed to use 

 dredging implements of any description for the capture of fish 

 or molluscs ivithin a line of 500 meters distance from the coast. 

 The reason of this prohibition was that the foot of the 

 dykes running out into the sea is in several spots protected 

 with specially constructed stone defences which might be 

 seriously damaged by dredging, and might thus weaken the 

 dykes, endanger the land behind them, and, at all events, 

 necessitate expensive repairs. It was the more easy to 

 enforce this regulation because dredging for oysters within 

 this 500 meter area, wherever the stone- works had been 

 constructed, was attended with great danger of losing the 

 dredge, as it easily got entangled in one way or the other. 



Now to this band of nearly a quarter of a mile in 

 width, which surrounds the Schelde basin on all sides, our 

 attention was more especially directed. A diver was sent 

 down at numerous different points, to make the explorations 



