BIRTH, GROWTH AND REPRODUCTION OF OYSTERS. 117 



spatting of the oyster does not depend on the weather at 

 all, but the destination of the spat does, because, if the 

 tiny seedling oyster does not fall on propitious ground, it 

 is lost for ever. New oyster beds are often discovered in 

 places where it is certain oysters did not exist in previous 

 years. How came they then to be formed ? The spat 

 must have been blown upon that ground by the ill wind 

 that carried it away from the spot where it was expected to 

 fall. If the spat exuded by the large quantity of oysters 

 known to be stocked in the pares at Whitstable, in Kent, 

 the home of the ' native/ were always to fall on the cultch 

 of Whitstable, instead of on the adjoining flats and else- 

 where, the company would soon become enormously rich.'' 

 In the "Year Book of Facts," for 1866, under "The 

 -Oyster Crop of 1865," will be found the following interest- 

 ing information : " Mr. Buckland, we perceive, states that 

 the fisheries depend upon ' the natural fall of spat,' which 

 is controverted by Mr. Cholmondeley Fennel, who con- 

 tends that the principle on which they are worked is briefly 

 this : ' There are hundreds of oyster grounds in all parts 

 of the kingdom which will, and do, constantly breed 

 oysters ; the speciality of the Thames beds is to fatten 

 them. Oysters bred in Ireland, for instance, with a few 

 exceptions, are rough, coarse-flavoured, and in many 

 instances actually unpalatable, from saltness or muddiness, 

 or both. These cheap, rough oysters, are brought over 

 and laid down at Whitstable or Herne Bay, and in a few 

 months they become palatable and fat, and ultimately 

 realize a high price at Billingsgate ; and if they ' spat ' on 

 the ground before being sent to market, the quality of the 

 Thames water is such that in two or three generations at 

 furthest their progeny become, to all intents and purposes, 

 pure natives. Again, brood oysters are procured in large 



