1050 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THKM. 



beds ; during the autumn, when the shells are most tender, 

 the heavy iron chain will break off the young shoots and do 

 great harm. 



Trawlers have lately found oyster beds in the North 

 Sea. The huge " Skelling Bank" off Heligoland consists 

 of numerous patches of oysters ; other great oyster beds 

 have been found off the Dutch coast by trawlers. 



A trawl has a beam which spreads about 40 feet, and, 

 especially in very deep water, where dredges will not work 

 nicely, it picks up a great many oysters. If trawling is 

 made into dredging on a large scale, it should be subject to 

 the same laws. 



RINGS FOR MEASUREMENT. 



The object of ring measurement is to prevent fisher- 

 men removing immature oysters from the deep-sea and 

 other beds. Where "ring" laws prevail and they are 

 widely enforced in France all oysters that pass through a 

 ring from two-and-a-half to three inches in diameter are 

 supposed to be unsaleable and unmarketable, and should 

 be immediately returned to the sea. 



We, have, however, no hesitation in saying that these 

 ring laws are frequently honoured more in the breach than 

 the observance, and that the expense and trouble of 

 enforcing them are greater than any benefit that arises 

 where they are always infringed, Fishermen will always 

 give themselves the benefit of the doubt, and when the 

 oyster is declared to be unsaleable, in many cases, such as 

 on deep-sea beds, it is too late to put it back again ; the 

 boats may be away four or five days, or even longer, from 

 port, Sunday intervenes, and the immature oysters are half- 

 killed before the possibility of re-laying them occurs. Prac- 



