ARTIFICIAL OYSTER CULTURE. 1093 



"Perhaps so," exclaims the reader, "and I will even 

 grant that it is so, if that will please you ; but although the 

 above sentence, with all that it bears upon, may suit 

 Mobius' theory, what has it to do with yours in regard to 

 the subject in question ?" 



Since I am bound to reply, I will say much that will 

 confirm both his and mine. Much that will tend to inspire 

 the reader with the scientific trust in the deservedly-famous 

 Biologist which I and others of far superior scientific 

 attainments to myself, have in his teachings.. If, therefore, 

 I am guilty of a slight digression, it is, as I have said, 

 knowingly, and with the above-mentioned object in view, 

 part of which, in the present instance, is to point out the 

 tenacity of prevalence the metaphorically "unconscionable 

 time in dying " of a " dazzling error." 



In the opening of the foregoing " Discussion," Mr. 

 Fell Woods remarks : "It was true, of course, that if a 

 large amount of dredging w r ent on during the other periods 

 of the year, the effect of the close time during the spatting 

 period could not be so great as it otherwise would be ; but 

 in proportion as any oysters were left on the ground, owing 

 to the restrictions of close time, so must the probability of 

 an increase in the oysters be favoured" 



I have italicised the words of the above quotation, 

 serving as an example of the prevalent and "dazzling 

 error," which Mobius speaks of as follows : 



Learned authorities had said that every mature breed- 

 ing oyster produced from two to three millions of young. 

 They believed, then, that if they left upon the beds only a 

 hundred breeding oysters, they would be doing all that was 

 necessary in order, in a short time, to find upon the over- 

 fished beds two hundred to three hundred million descen- 

 dants of the same. Up to 1854, the oyster-beds of Roche- 



