Il6 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



" One sees occasionally," says Frank Buckland (Times, 

 August, 1865,) " columns of gnats dancing up and down in 

 the air. I fancy the same conditions which suit the gnats 

 on land suit the young oysters in the sea. Cold and wind 

 disperse the gnats, and they are no more seen ; the same 

 with the oysters, though they have many enemies besides." 



The following theory of the spat was promulgated by 

 Mr. Bertram, through the columns of the Times: (m) 

 " In an open expanse of sea the spat may be carried to 

 great distances by tidal influence, or a sharp breeze upon 

 the water may waft the oyster-seed many a long mile 

 away. Every bed has its own time of spatting thus, one 

 of a series of scalps may be spatting on a fine warm day, 

 when the sea is like glass, so that the spat cannot fail to 

 fall ; while on another portion of the beds the spat may 

 fall on a windy day, be thus left to the tender mercy of a 

 fiercely receding tide, and so be lost, or fall mayhap on 

 an ungenial bottom, a long way from the shore. 



" On the Isle of Oleron, which supplies the green 

 oyster breeders of Marennes with such large quantities, it 

 is quite certain that in the course of the summer a friendly 

 wave will waft large quantities of spat into the artificial 

 pares, when it is known that the oysters in these pares 

 have not spawned. Where does the spat come from ? 

 The men say it comes off some of the natural beds of the 

 adjoining sea is driven in by the tide, and finds a welcome 

 resting-place on the artificial receivers of their pares. It 

 is altogether an erroneous idea to suppose that there are 

 some seasons when the oyster does not spat, because of the 

 cold weather, &c. Some of the pares had spatted at 

 Arcachon this year (1866), in very ungenial weather. The 

 (m) No date given ; see " Harvest of the Sea," p. 253. 



