Preface. 
After I had been appointed, in 1905, Adviser to the Department of Agri- 
culture in matters concerning the oyster fisheries, I endeavoured, partly through 
investigations in the Lim Fjord, partly through communicaiions with those interested 
in the oyster fisheries and partly through the study of the available publications 
and official documents, to gain some knowledge of what had really happened to 
the oyster fisheries in the Lim Fjord since their beginning in the year 1852. No 
connected account namely was available regarding this matter, and a good deal of 
confusion reigned. I considered it 'advisable therefore to bring together what I 
had collected before the present contract ran out. The summary of the earlier 
history has been prepared with the help partly of the Office for Crown Lands and 
partly of the Office of Public Records. Two men have helped me greatly, namely, 
Permanent Secretary, Mr. P. L. Holm Jørgensen and Justitsraad, Ritmester Paulsen, 
the latter of whom has had a good deal to do personally with the oyster fisheries 
for many years; to both I would tender here my thanks for their assistance. 
The reason why I have not at the same time drawn up an account of the 
conditions prevailing on the other oyster banks within the sea-territory of Denmark, 
namely, at the Skaw (the »Fladstrand« oysters) and on the west coast of Schleswig 
on the North Sea (the so-called Flensborg oysters), is that they are without impor- 
tance for the practical fisheries and quite without interest in comparison with the 
banks in the Lim Fjord. The rich production on the latter is clearly sufficient to 
provide Denmark with oysters, even if the consumption became much greater than 
it is now. 
Copenhagen, April 1907. 
The Author. 
