10 HISTORY OF THE OYSTER. 



cestors, thus affording to them a beneficial source of 

 employment, upon which they have been accustomed 

 to rely, and in which therefore they ought to be pro- 

 tected. 



The committee then go on to report, that, having 

 examined the Acts of Parliament, they do not find 

 any sufficiently stringent to prevent the grievance 

 complained of, and that it should be made unlawful 

 to take or carry away any oysters from such beds of 

 a less size than are fit for food, that is to say, of less 

 size than 2^ inches in width ; or to fish for oysters 

 at any time between the first day of May and the last 

 day of August in every year, or such other time as 

 should be fixed in reference to any particular harbour, 

 according to the season in which the oysters there 

 become fit for food ; such seasons, and all necessary 

 regulations for those fisheries, being determined or 

 approved by the magistrates of the county or district 

 in which they are situate, and enforced by conserva- 

 tors and officers locally appointed for that purpose. 



No Act appears, however, to have been passed, 

 putting these recommendations in force. 



In consequence of the French fishermen exercising 

 their calling on the English shore, a convention was 

 entered into in 1839 between Her Majesty and the 

 King of the French, fixing certain boundaries, and to 

 which a chart was appended. 



The 27th of Victoria, chap. 79, entitled " An Act to 



