ARTIFICIAL OYSTER CULTURE. I 1 09 



system of oyster legislation, unfortunately, there is another 

 cause, more potent in its ruinous influence than the natural 

 one described, which, if it does not directly lead to failure, 



does indirectly forbid its possible amendment, and that is 



i 



the enormous expense entailed in such a venture. 



M. d'Argy was not successful ; Madame Felix was : 

 at least Mr. Fennell leads us to believe so-- and, had the 

 former hit upon a better choice of locality, in all probability 

 his daring and praiseworthy attempt would have been 

 rewarded in a more fortunate result. 



The same remark will apply to Hayling Island. But 

 when, in connection with the latter, we take into consider- 

 ation the astounding statement that the price of an oyster, 

 when obtained by the culture practised here, in Herne 

 Bay, near Reculvers, and in the estuary of the Thames, 

 amounted to ^50, to 100, and even to ^500 (!) we 

 cannot wonder at the Ostracultural fiasco, or that the 

 gentlemen who formed that hapless and now historical 

 Company should shrink in terror from all further attempts at 

 Basin culture, or any other culture connected with oysters. 



" ' Tis true 'tis pity, and pity 'tis 'tis true." 



But is it not at the same time monstrous that we 

 should so outrageously burlesque the teachings of common 

 sense in submitting apathetically to an Ostracultural 

 administration which (perhaps (?) in a well-meaning, but, 

 unfortunately, a most deplorably short-sighted spirit of 

 benefiting the people) draws with such extremely absurd 

 exorbitance upon the wealth of our Capitalists, crippling 

 their enterprise, and tending in every way to weaken the 

 energetic character of a people pre-eminently endowed with 

 universally-famed capacities for Industrial pursuits or 

 Mercantile ventures. 



