28 M. Kroyer on ths Danish Oyster-Banks. 



ing to some statements, these banks reach down past Hirts- 

 holmen, east and west, round Laso to Anholt. According to 

 statements made, oyster-banks would seem also to extend round 

 the west coast of Jutland to Hirtshals. It is only the banks 

 lying on the east coast opposite Skagen which are let and 

 fished. Their produce is much smaller than thai of the banks 

 of Schleswig ; and their sale is limited to Jutland itself and 

 Copenhagen .• whereas the oysters of Schleswig are exported to 

 Hamburg, and thence over the whole of Northern Germany ; 

 and formerly, likewise, they were sent to all the sea-ports of 

 the Baltic, as far as Reval and Petersburg, Of late years, 

 however, the English and Dutch oysters have done them great 

 injury, even in Hamburg, which is now the great mart of the 

 Schleswig oysters. The term deputat-oysters (i. e. oysters 

 forming an allowance made to certain persons at the public 

 expense), generally applied to the best Schleswig oysters, had 

 its origin in the circumstance, that the lessee of the oysters 

 was not only bound to deliver twenty-five tons to the royal 

 kitchen, but likewise from 1000 to 3000 individuals to the 

 privy councillors, the presidents of the public boards, and a 

 number of other official persons, which amounted altogether to 

 56,000 individuals, or seventy tons. The lessee was likewise 

 responsible for the goodness of these oysters ; for, in the histori- 

 cal portion of the work, we find that, on one occasion, a lease was 

 not lengthened to a lessee because he had sent bad deputat- 

 oysters to Copenhagen. There is no wonder, therefore, that this 

 appellation was bestowed on the best kind of oysters. The lessee 

 is bound to give up the banks in as good a condition as they 

 were when he received them. To effect this object, the banks 

 are examined by an official commission ; and they are fished at 

 three fixed points by fishermen who are bound by an oath. 

 The condition of the bank is determined by the quantity of 

 oysters taken. The results of the various examinations from 

 1709 to 1830 are given by M. Kroyer in two tables. They 

 lead to the conclusion that the productiveness of the banks has 

 diminished in an extraordinary degree ; and that if it should in 

 future diminish in the same proportion, there will soon be no 

 oyster-banks in existence in Denmark. 



