OYSTER CULTURE IN ENGLAND. 415 



from Orkney, Stranraer, and Swansea, in order to ascertain 

 whether any or all of these different kinds will breed in the 

 Forth, and he proposes to import 200,000 or 300,000 if any 

 succeed. At the present time the ground, over the whole 

 of which oysters were formerly distributed in greater or less 

 numbers, appears to be tenanted almost exclusively by 

 clams, and five hauls of the dredge made before me under 

 the superintendence of Mr. Anderson, only produced six 

 oysters and a very few spat, which were all obtained at one 

 cast. If these hauls gave a fair impression of the state of 

 the beds, which, however, Mr. Anderson assures me is not 

 the case, it must be very doubtful whether almost all the 

 ground is not too completely denuded for restoration to be 

 possible, apart from the importation of oysters from else- 

 where ; and it is evident that the 300,000 oysters which it 

 is proposed to lay down would, if deposited, do little 

 towards restocking so large an area as the 4,700 acres 

 which remain to Mr. Anderson after the relinquishment by 

 him in 1871 of 697 acres, leased in that year from the 

 Duke of Buccleuch by the Corporation of Edinburgh. I 

 cannot therefore look forward under any circumstances to 

 a proximate revival of the productiveness of the fishery ; 

 and until a much larger number of oysters are laid down 

 than have as yet been introduced, the only benefit which 

 Mr. Anderson's tenancy can bestow upon it is that, as the 

 ground is withheld from public dredging, the chance is 

 offered that if it continues to be so withheld oysters may in 

 time accumulate afresh. 



The portion of the ground leased by the Corporation 

 of Edinburgh is regulated in the same manner as that of 

 which they have obtained a grant from the Board of Trade ; 

 I may therefore be permitted to refer to my Report upon 

 that fishery, for a statement of the system upon which their 



