29 



care be exercised in working the park, the muddy or 

 rather clayey sand forming" the upper surface and core of 

 the best flats is sufficiently consolidated to require little 

 or no artificial aid to constitute it suitable to bear a load 

 of growing oysters. In practice the parker takes care 

 that the oysters arc frequently raked to the surface when 

 the ground is rather soft ; the workers also take pre- 

 cautions to avoid trampling the oysters into the mud, 

 having plate attachments to their shoes under such 

 circumstances. For rearing brood to the size of 2 to i\ 

 inches in diameter the ebb-dry flats of the central and 

 south sections of the basin are used ; those of the north 

 and west are too muddy to be of value while those along 

 the western shore of the basin and towards the seaward 

 passage where the salinity of the water is appreciably 

 higher, form a separate class limited in area and 

 number and are devoted almost entirly to the purposes 

 of fatten inq-. 



The whole of the western shore of the basin is sandy, 

 a long narrow dune-formed peninsula separating the 

 basin from the sea. A century ago it would have* been 

 madness to form parks along its landward margin as the 

 prevailing westerly winds were at that time moving the 

 dunes eastwards, constantly invading the littoral. 

 To-day the march of the dunes has been arrested by 

 planting them up with forests of pine trees ; the oyster- 

 farmer may now in comparative security possess himself 

 of the littoral, fence it in and prepare it for oyster culture. 

 Along the sandy margin especially in the section towards 

 Cape Ferret, the headland which forms the northern 

 bound of the passage seawards, oysters are found to 

 thrive and fatten very much more rapidly than on the 

 sections more remote from the sea. In consequence it 

 pays the parker to incur much heavier capital ex- 

 penditure in clearing and preparing the ground here than 

 elsewhere. And much has to be done, for here no level 

 flat exists, but a long sloping foreshore covered with 

 banks of arid sand unsuitable on account of its loose 

 and shifting nature to form park bottom. It happens 



