386 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



echo the sentiments of a trawler whom I once accom- 

 panied in his boat. Politely venturing to question his 

 misguided notion, he looked at me with an amused smile, 

 whilst in an emphatic tone of superior knowledge, tinged 

 with an air of pity at my ignorance, he exclaimed " I've 

 seen 'em and catched 'em scores o' times. Why, Sir, 

 after the first Oyster Company gave up in Poole Harbour, 

 I've gone down and collected thousands at low water, and 

 some on 'em was quite low down, an' I had to dig 'em 

 up." 



I have given the man's assertion verbatim, nor have I 

 stooped to the subterfuge of emphasizing the last words 

 for the purpose of enlarging the importance (as it were) of 

 my own little zoological knowledge, in opposition to the 

 trawler's erratic belief. The words were by no means 

 emphatically intoned, but uttered simply and earnestly, 

 and with a confidence that scorned the very thought of 

 contradiction. 



Now what can we say with respect to this state of 

 ignorance ? 



To use the stereotyped phrase "Comment is need- 

 less," were to express a falsification of judgment quite 

 unpardonable and too painfully apparent. I could and 

 would fill pages with "Comment" and suggestions for 

 educational remedies, but I am afraid both would be frus- 

 trated in the attainment of their objects. For, putting 

 aside altogether the matter of the mud-burrowing oyster, 

 I ask what hopes of educational success can any writer 

 hope to attain from a necessary and industrial class of 

 individuals, whose thoughtless folly and lack of thrift led 

 them to kill their "goose with the golden eggs." In 

 other words, whose reckless greed tempted them to over- 

 dredge the bountiful harvest of their once prolific and 



