CHAPTER XVIII. 



OYSTER CULTURE IN ENGLAND. 



THE WHITSTABLE FISHERIES. 



THE ISLE OF SHEPPEY, THE MEDWAY, AND WHITSTABLE ECONOMY 

 OF AN OYSTER FARM METHOD OF WORKING THE WHITSTABLE 

 FISHERY THE PONT FISHERIES PRICE OF AND QUANTITY OF 

 "BROOD," "WARE," AND OYSTERS IN A LONDON BUSHEL 

 "COMMONS" "NATIVES" " PLANTING " HOW TO TELL A 

 WHITSTABLE NATIVE ENORMOUS INCREASE OF PRICES CLAN- 

 NISHNESS OF THE WHITSTABLE OYSTER FISHERS MR. SIBERT 

 SAUNDERS'S MUSEUM OF PRACTICAL BENEFIT TO THE DRED- 

 GERS RISE AND FALL OF PRICES HOPES FOR THE FUTURE. 



WHO that has travelled by water from London Bridge to 

 Herne Bay and who among us who live within the sound 

 of Bow Bells has not ? should the trip have been made in 

 the beginning of August, but must have noticed, after 

 having passed the Isle of Sheppey, a little fishing town to 

 the right, in East Swale Bay, raising its head out of the 

 river like a joyous child dressed in its gayest attire, antici- 

 pating a long-looked for holiday ? It is the 4th of August, 

 and its holiday is at hand, for to-morrow the oyster season 

 begins ; and the town is Whitstable, in Kent, standing out 



