400 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



spat whatever upon it, and only one or two on the " laying" 

 ground before referred to. 



In fact, the number of acres (80) which the company 

 claim to have brought under actual cultivation, and to 

 have stocked with oysters, forms such a trifling area in 

 comparison with the surrounding and uncultivated spaces 

 in the estuary of the Blackwater, that this result is not to 

 be wondered at. The tides carry away the spat from the 

 cultivated ground on to grounds either above or below it, 

 where, if it comes to perfection at all, it is lost to the 

 company. 



The opposite of this process occurs in the case of 

 rivers like the Roach and the Crouch, and the Burnham 

 river, where the grounds being for practical purposes one 

 entire and cultivated fishery from end to end, the spat 

 carried from one fishery is deposited and brought to matu- 

 rity on another, the fishery on which they have been actu- 

 ally bred in like manner receiving the spat brought by the 

 tide from the adjacent nurseries. 



I have, &c., 



(Signed) H. CHOLMONDELEY PENNELL. 

 The Assistant Secretary, 



j * 



Harbour Department, Board of Trade. 



BOSHAM FISHERY ORDER. 

 20, Onslow Gardens, i8//z January, 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 22nd December the several 

 Oyster and Mussel Fishery granted to the Bosham 



