OYSTER CULTURE IN ENGLAND. 419 



nearly the whole of the fisheries held under different titles 

 by the Corporation of Edinburgh, in the hands of the 

 Newhaven fishermen, has led to the accounts and statistics 

 of the several fisheries being massed together. This is of 

 little importance as regards the accounts, no expense, 

 except the rent payable to the Board of Trade, being incur- 

 red by the Corporation in respect of the grounds which are 

 the subject of the Order ; but it destroys the value of the 

 return of quantities fished which was sent to the Board of 

 Trade last spring, the numbers given in it being those of 

 oysters taken in the whole of the three grounds. 



In spite of the impossibility of arriving at the statistics 

 of production, I can have no hesitation in thinking that the 

 beds granted to the Corporation have deteriorated since 

 the year 1870. From the report made by Mr. Pennell in 

 1869, it appears that, until a period then "recent," 1500 

 to 2000 marketable oysters formed an average day's catch 

 in the open grounds of the Forth ; in that year 800 was 

 rather above than below the number usually taken : the 

 quantity;, according to the fishermen, is now reduced to 

 150, or 200 at most on the united fisheries ; and as only 22 

 oysters were brought up in three casts of the dredge, made 

 before me in the best part of the only patch of ground 

 conceded by the Order which is now said to contain 

 oysters, I am inclined to think that the above number can 

 only be reached in the private Corporation grounds. For 

 this state of things the responsibility must rest upon the 

 Corporation. The Newhaven fishermen are no doubt 

 bound by agreement to " use the best means of cultivating 

 the oysters," but they have not observed the agreement, and 

 no measures have been taken to enforce it. They fish the 



grounds without supervision, in whatever manner and to 



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