OYSTER CULTURE IN ENGLAND. 425 



No sal.e or removal of oysters has taken place since 

 the grant of the Order. 



I am, &c., 

 (Signed) W. E. HALL. 



The Assistant Secretary, 



* ' 



Harbour Department, Board of Trade. 



HAMBLE FISHERY ORDER. 

 2 o , Onslow Gardens, 1 8 th Ja n ua ry, 1877. 



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

 ance with your instructions, dated the i8th November, 

 1876, I inspected, on the i5th instant, the several oyster 

 fishery granted to Messrs. Warner and Scovell, under 

 "The Hamble Oyster Fishery Order, 1868." 



The Hamble Fishery consists of 1 20 acres of ground, 

 which, though nearly barren at the time of the public inquiry 

 held upon the grant of the Order, was then recognised by 

 Mr. Pennell to be eminently fitted, at least in its lower 

 part, both for breeding and fattening oysters. It is not 

 improbable that the ground is not so favourable for breed- 

 ing as it appeared to be, since the outgoing tide is said to 

 be so strong as to carry much of the spat which is emitted 

 beyond the limits of the fishery to the open beds of the 

 Solent ; but as a sufficient supply of cultch did not exist 

 in the channel when it came into the hands of the grantees, 

 and none has since been laid down, no considerable 

 amount of reproduction could, under any circumstances, 

 be expected. A small quantity of spat adhered in 1872, 

 but none has fallen within the ground in any other year. 

 The fishery has been treated as a growing and fattening 



