HISTORY OF THE PRINCIPAL PEARL BANKS. 11 



None of these cases of disappearance ol oysters present any special difficulty or 

 remain in mystery. All can be accounted for by natural causes wbich we know to be 

 at work. 



As the Cheval Paar is then, under most circumstances, so reliable as a rearing 

 ground, it is important to consider the adecpuacy of the supply of spat. On looking 

 over the history, we find that there is either direct record or indirect evidence of at 

 least 26 fresh broods of oysters having arisen during the nineteenth century, as 

 follows : 



Spat of 1801 (?). Fished 180G. 



1805 or 1806. (?) Fished 1809. 



1807. Sampled 1811. 



1808. Fished 1814. 



1810. Fished 1816. 



1816. Died 1821. 



1824 or 1825. Fished 1829, 1830, and 1831. 



1831. Fished 1835, 1836, and 1837. 



1838. No record between 1840 and 1851. 



1850. Fished 1855. 



1852. Fished 1857 and 1858. 



1853. Fished 1859. 



1858. Fished 1863 ; remainder dead 1864. 



,, 1867. Spat on weed disappeared next year. 



1870. Fished 1874. 



1873. Fished 1877. 



1875. Fished 1880 and 1881. 



1877. (?) Fished also in 1881. 



1 879 1 

 " " ^ Young oysters which died off. 



1880. J 



1883. Fished 1887 and 1888. 

 1887. Young oysters which died oft. 

 1889. No record of these. 

 ,, 1892. No record of these. 

 ,, 1898. Young oysters which died oft. 



1899. Fished 1903 and 1904. 

 [ 1901. Not yet fished.] 



That 26 deposits of spat should have produced 25 fisheries must be considered a 

 good record, and a strong testimony to the economic value and reliability of the bank. 

 Several of the broods, such as that of 1899, have produced more than one fishery; 

 and, on the other hand, some few broods evidently died oft" at an early age or have 

 remained unrecorded. Although there have been so many fisheries, 25 in a century, 



C 2 



