4O2 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



becoming alarmed at the condition of the fishery, deter- 

 mined upon using, and did in fact use, a 3^ inch ring. 

 They have now further determined not to fish at all during 

 the season of 1876-7 ; and they are about to endeavour to 

 raise money by an issue of A shares, to enable themselves 

 to partially re-stock the ground. The most fertile part of 

 the beds, amounting perhaps to about a fourth of the area 

 which remains to any degree productive, has been kept in 

 a thoroughly clean state ; the remainder is somewhat, 

 though not seriously, dirty. In cleaning their ground the 

 dredgermen suffer from a difficulty which, it is to be feared, 

 must always affect a co-operative society of fishermen, so 

 long as it is not in a highly prosperous state. The indi- 

 vidual members are too poor to give the time necessary 

 for working the beds without payment ; and the society is 

 too poor to pay for the necessary labour. It may be 

 doubted, indeed, whether the good condition in which the 

 ground now is may not in great part be ascribed to the 

 undue fishing to which it has been exposed. 



I am, &c., 



(Signed) W. E. HALL. 

 The Assistant Secretary, 

 Harbour Department, Board of Trade. 



BOSTON DEEPS FISHERY ORDER. 

 20, Onslow Gardens, 27/72 December, 1876. 



Sir, I have the honour to inform you that, in accord- 

 ance with your instructions dated the ist November, I 

 visited Boston on the ist and 2nd instant, in order to 

 inspect the oyster and mussel fishery, over which the Cor- 



