446 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



was to a certain extent exported before 1871, the prohi- 

 bition to remove oysters under a certain size imposed by 

 the Order has, no doubt, had some effect in limiting the 

 quantity taken as compared with that fished before 1871, 

 but the progressive decline which is apparent in the fishery 

 from year to year must, of course, be wholly independent 

 of it. Nor can the diminution be attributed to absence of 

 spat. It is true that no very large quantity has been ob- 

 served for many years, but I was informed that a certain 

 amount in every season attaches itself and survives ; and 

 that this is the case I am satisfied from personal examina- 

 tion of a large number of oysters of various ages in the 

 storing beds at Oyster-mouth. At the time of my visit the 

 greater part of these were young. The only remaining 

 cause to which a diminished yield can be ascribed is undue 

 dredging, and there can be no doubt that the continued 

 deterioration of the fishery is not less owing to this than 

 was its original impoverishment. It may, in fact, be said 

 that the dredging which is now carried on within the pro- 

 visions of the Order is, for all practical purposes, as waste- 

 ful as the unregulated dredging which devastated the beds 

 before the Order was granted. That this is the case is due 

 partly to the smallness of the ring, the employment of 

 which is prescribed by the Order, and partly to the abstin- 

 ence of the Corporation from using its power to close a 

 portion of the beds. 



A regulation preventing oysters from being taken 

 which cannot pass through a ring of a certain diameter acts 

 to the advantage of a fishery in two ways. It secures that 

 instead of being exported as brood, they shall attain a 

 growth at which they are relatively valuable, and at which 

 consequently a given number brings in a larger return to 

 the dredgermen ; and, if the specified size is large 



