410 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



of the fishery was attempted, the grant of the Order ap- 

 peared to produce an immediate improvement. The 

 ground was again inspected by Mr. Pennell in 1872, and 

 from the information which he received, he reported that 

 the prospects of the fishery were excellent. In dredging 

 over the beds himself, he obtained in four consecutive 

 trawls with one dredge, 1 9 marketable oysters and 1 34 

 smaller Oysters in various stages of growth. The crop also 

 rapidly increased. In 1872-3, 30,210 are returned as 

 having been fished; 95,943 are put down for 1873-4, 

 310,993 for 1874-5, and 379,744 for 1875-6. From Sep- 

 tember, 1876, till the end of the year, 77,000 were taken, 

 and from the ist January to the end of December, 1876, 

 the total number was 108,049. Thus, although the quan- 

 tity obtained last year indicates a probable falling off from 

 the yield of other seasons, the returns in the whole mark a 

 distinct success. The results of my own observation of 

 the ground, however, hardly coincide with the expectation 

 which might be formed from the figures. Fourteen hauls of 

 the dredge produced only 54 oysters, of which very few were 

 marketable, and the quantity of spat visible was extremely 

 small. None of these casts were made in the portion of 

 the ground nearest to Emsworth, the productiveness of 

 which is said to have been destroyed by some neighbour- 

 ing reclamation works ; and, on the other hand, I was 

 prevented by the roughness of the weather from dredging 

 over one of the banks near the mouth of the channel, 

 which is stated to be the best by the dredgermen. In the 

 part over which I dredged, which forms much the larger 

 portion of the fishery, the ground and cultch are not clean 

 as compared with those of neighbouring fisheries. 



I regret that, in order to enable you to form a judg- 

 ment on the actual condition of the Emsworth Channel 



