BY J. C. COX, M.D., r.L.8. 559 



It is extremely to be regretted that througli an unaccountable 

 oversight the framers of our present Fisheries Act have failed to 

 protect our Kock Oyster beds from wilful waste and destruction, 

 the definition of " Xatiiral Oyster beds " is so worded that it 

 only protects Oysters from being removed at any time from beds 

 below low water mark. Such valuable Banks as I have just 

 described, and in fact all our shore Oysters attached to rocks 

 are legislated for under our Fisheries Act only so far as giving 

 persons the right to lease them, which leases it is found im- 

 practicable to issue. In Queensland the Oyster beds are divided 

 into two classes — Dredge Oysters and Bank Oysters. The former 

 are leased at auction for a term of seven years, subject to 

 certain restrictions, the latter are worked under license. 



The period which an Oyster will live when taken from its 

 natural bed and left out of water, is a proof in the opinion of 

 many who have given much attention to this subject that our 

 Drift Oysters differ from the Eock Oysters, and it certainly 

 appears true from what experiments I have been able to make, 

 that our Bock Oysters will live much longer when so removed 

 from the water than the Drift Oyster, I suspect it is this j)ower 

 of endurance which is favouring at present the active cultivator 

 of the Bock Oyster in preference to the Drift Oyster. 



The other specimens of Oysters exhibited are from Townsville, 

 Queensland, they are very fine specimens of the common Queens- 

 land Bock Oyster — Ostrea mordax of Gould, and which it would 

 be unpardonable for any one to mistake or confuse with the Bock 

 Oyster of our shores : these Oysters extend for fifty miles north 

 of Cardwell, a point much further north than I had known them 

 to extend when I wrote my paper on the Edible Oysters of 

 Australia, published in this Journal some months ago. 



I have also ascertained through my friend and able Concho- 

 logist Mr. Gr. Neville of the Calcutta Museum that our Bock 

 Oyster — Ostrea glomerata extends as far north as Moreton Bay 



