ARTIFICIAL OYSTER CULTURE. 1099 



Surely I have, in abridgement at least, brought 

 together sufficient evidence to justify my belief and sub- 

 stantiate my theory ? And thus, not to bore the reader 

 with repetition, if the "climate'' of France (coupled, of 

 course, with the aid of culture) can produce 40,000,000 of 

 spat, and that of England, by the same method, 1 20,000,000, 

 so far as the word " climate " applies, what difference is 

 there between the two countries ? For (taking the word 

 in the sense implied by my opponents) if the English 

 climate were like that of the German coast, where, as 

 Mobius tells us, the French method cannot be pursued, it 

 must naturally follow that the attempt at Hayling Island 

 would have been productive of no oyster spat whatever. 



So, then, Mobius must be in the right, and, with 

 regard to Great Britain, the climatic theory falls to the 

 ground. 



Climate is well, it is a very convenient word, and 

 covers a multitude of Ostracultural Sins, especially legisla- 

 tive ones. There are English Ostraculturists so blinded 

 by the " dazzing error " of the Climatic Theory, that they 

 cannot think and see otherwise than that " the climate of 

 Ireland " even " is becoming too cold for the cultivation of 

 oysters." 



As I have had little to say about Ireland heretofore, 

 and as what I have now to add bears strongly upon the 

 matter under review, I need make no apology for extracts 

 from two writers of practical experience. The first is from 

 the pen of Mr. Fennell, giving a slight sketch of the past 

 and present state of oyster culture in " the Emerald Isle," 

 and serving also as a kind of introduction to the second 

 extract, which, although only an abridgment of a " Paper " 

 read at a meeting, is especially worthy of the reader's par- 



