CHAPTER XXXIII. 



THE OYSTER INDUSTRY IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



PROFESSOR RAMSAY, speaking at one of the Conferences 

 (held in connection with the great International Fisheries 

 Exhibition of 1883) on the Fisheries of New South Wales, 

 (a] said, with respect to the oyster production of that 

 country, that most of the beds are natural beds, and that 

 very few of them are formed by artificial layings, while all 

 are under lease, and more or less under cultivation. 



He classified the native edible mollusca under Ostrea 

 glomerata, Gould, O. virescens, 0. subtrigonia, Sow., O. mor- 

 daoc, .Gld., O. edulis, var.pttrpurea, Hanley. 



The Rock-Oysters (he observed) although usually 

 known under several different names, are now by most 

 conchologists admitted to be only localised varieties of 

 one and the same species, Ostrea glomerata. If we accept 

 this view, then we have only two species which are used 

 as articles of food 0. glomerata, in its many varieties, and 

 O. edulis, Z., O.purpurea being only a variety of the latter, 

 which is identical with the small form known as the 

 "Native," in the London markets. 



(a) "The Fisheries of New South Wales," by Edward P. Ram- 

 say, Commissioner of the New South Wales Fisheries. (Conference 

 Papers, &c. William Clowes & Sons, London.) 



