41 8 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



(V) EDINBURGH FISHERY ORDER. 



20, Otis low Gardens, ^^th December, 1876. 



Sir, I have the honour to inform you that, in accord- 

 ance with your instructions, dated the ist November, I 

 inspected on the zoth of that month the Edinburgh several 

 Oyster and Mussel Fishery, granted to the Corporation of 

 that city, under "The Edinburgh Fishery Order, 1870." 



The Edinburgh fishery consists of a long strip of 

 ground, three-and-a-half square miles in extent, lying in 

 the middle of the Firth of Forth, and contiguous to the 

 private oyster fisheries of the Corporation, and of the 

 Duke of Buccleuch. The private beds of the Corporation 

 have been long dredged by the Newhaven fishermen, and 

 at the time when application was made for the Order by 

 the former body, it had agreed to allow the Newhaven 

 men to fish the ground which it was proposed to acquire. 

 As the result of an agreement between various parties, 

 made during the public inquiry for the purpose of estab- 

 lishing convenient boundaries between certain of the 

 fisheries in the Forth, 387 acres of the ground granted by 

 the Order has been let to Mr. Anderson, tenant of the 

 Duke of Buccleuch's oyster fisheries, and 697 acres belong- 

 ing to the Duke are rented by the Corporation. The New- 

 haven fishermen are occupants of the latter ground, and of 

 the remainder of the outer grounds granted to the Corpo- 

 ration under the Order. They are also still tenants of the 

 private grounds of the Corporation. The concentration of 



