250 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



The demand for native and other oysters by the Lon- 

 doners alone is something wonderful, and constitutes of 

 itself a large branch of commerce as the numerous shell- 

 fish shops of the Strand and Haymarket abundantly testify. 

 It is not easy to arrive at correct statistics of what London 

 requires in the way of oysters ; but if we set the number 

 down as being nearly 1,000,000,000 per annum, we shall 

 not be very far wrong, (h) To provide these, the dredger- 

 men or fisher people at Colchester, and other places on the 

 Essex and Kent coasts, prowl about the sea-shore and pick 

 up all the little oysters they can find these ranging from 

 the size of a threepenny-piece to a shilling ; and persons 

 and companies having layings purchase them to be nursed 

 and fattened for the table, as already described. At other 

 places the spawn itself is collected, by picking it from the 

 pieces of stone, or the old oyster-shells, to which it may 

 have adhered ; and it is nourished in pits, as at Burnham, 

 for the purpose of being sold to the Whitstable people, 

 who carefully lay that brood in their grounds. A good 

 idea of the oyster-traffic may be obtained from the fact 

 that, in some years, the Whitstable men have paid ,30,000 

 for brood, in order to keep up the stock of their far-famed 

 oysters. 



The centre in England for the distribution of oysters 

 is Billingsgate, the chief piscatorial bourse of the great 

 metropolis, and the countless thousands of bushels of this 

 molluscous dainty which find their way through " Oyster 

 Street" to this Fish Exchange, mark the everlasting 

 demand. Oysters are sold by the bushel, and every 

 measure is made to pay a toll of fourpence, and another 



(h) At the present time (1890) 50,000 tons of oysters are consumed 

 during the season in London. 



