28^ ox OYSTER-CULTUEE IX SCOTLAXD. 



time in which they were altogether under water as of much' 

 importance ; but in order to test its influence on the problem 

 we erected another further ashore, and of similar height, over 

 which the tide at no time can flow clear. The bottom of this 

 we dug out, so as to form a pond in which the oysters are 

 always covered at the lowest of the ebb, in case the very short 

 period in which the others were occasionally out of the water 

 should have some influence on the prosperity of the spat. 



All these were planted with our own fine oysters, in capital 

 condition, and early in the season, so that they would be well 

 settled ere the time arrived for throwing spat. They w^ere like- 

 wise wattled so closely with bushy branches of Scotch fir, spruce 

 fir, and larch, and tied together with long wands of hazel and 

 rowan, that the whole formed huge enclosures of close basket- 

 work, impervious to any but the most embryonic enemies, and 

 through which it was a practical impossibility the young of the 

 oyster could escape. In some of them, also, are placed a pro- 

 portion of the oysters under a basket of close wicker-work ; but 

 the absence of light in this case would materially interfere, no 

 doubt, with the procreative power of the parent oysters. In 

 anotlier we placed an erection of cocoanut matting, whosS' 

 roughened fibres have before now proved an admirable " cultch " 

 for the settlement of the young oyster. When we consider that 

 in eacli of these large well-secured and well-placed erections 

 thousands of oysters in fine condition, native to the waters, and 

 sufficiently settled ere the breeding season commenced, were 

 laid with care, the entire absence of spat is somewhat remark- 

 able. That the spat could have been carried out by the currents- 

 and somewhat severe gales of the early part of the season does 

 not admit of belief ; and the more especially as this loch outside, 

 no more than inside our erections, shows any sign of spat these- 

 two seasons beyond the merest sprinkling widely apart. This 

 would be by no means a hopeful sign for our waters, were we 

 not supported by the fact that the omnipresence of the oyster 

 on our shores, shows that it certainly flourishes with us, while 

 the almost universal failure of spat in the United Kingdom 

 points to a general, and not a particular, cause for the absence 

 of any with us. It is a well-known fact in connection with 

 oyster culture, that in this country a good spat conies but once 

 in many years, and considering the great fertility of the oyster, 

 this alone can account for its comparative scarcity in districts 

 where it can always be gathered by the hundred in good 

 weather. Our experience has shown that the explanation of 

 currents carrying oft' the spat cannot explain this failure in our 

 case, while the fact that in each year the dredge or the " graip " 

 has brought to light the survival of some few young, shows that 

 the cause of destruction must come somewhere between the- 



