344 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



experiment were of a most unaccountable, although per- 

 fectly satisfactory character ; and when we state that pre- 

 cisely similarly puzzling results have been obtained this 

 year at the opposite side of the island, and on a very much 

 larger area of water, we may possibly have said enough to 

 fully rouse the interest of the reader. 



In the spring of 1866 two pares were prepared for the 

 old oysters to throw off their spat in one on the plan pur- 

 sued on Lake Fusaro, in Italy, and the other on the French 

 plan pursued on the He de Re. The Fusaro bed, as we 

 may term it for plainness of description, was of about 3 feet 

 depth of water, which, as a general rule, might be con- 

 sidered as still water, fresh water only being admitted at 

 spring tides through a sluice gate from the harbour outside 

 the banks of the oyster farm. The bed of this pare was 

 partly covered with shingle, and on this shingle were laid 

 early in April 50,000 oysters from the deep sea beds ; light 

 and flat hurdles formed of hazel sticks and brushwood were 

 laid over the oysters, and held by stakes in the bed of the 

 pond a certain distance above them. The other bed, on 

 the plan of the French at lie de Re, was entirely laid with 

 shingle (over the saltern beds), and had a constant yet 

 gentle running stream of water passing over it. In lieu of 

 using hazel stick hurdles for collecting the spat, tiles were 

 laid down. Both ponds, or pares were connected by a 

 narrow waterway, through which the water flowed from the 

 Fusaro into the He de R6 beds. There was no material 

 difference in the time of laying down the oysters in either 

 bed, nor was there any difference in the quality of either. 

 The result of this experiment was that while the pond on 

 the lake Fusaro plan was filled with spat at spawning time, 

 the other pond held no spat, nor was any thrown off by its 

 oysters subsequently. The spat was first discovered in the 



