74 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 



able for their saline flavour when first brought over, but 

 it goes off after they have been bedded for some time at 

 Southampton.* 



It is said, that formerly there were fine oyster-beds 

 between Portsmouth, Hayling, and the Isle of Wight, but 

 they have been ruined by excessive and indiscriminate 

 dredging. f I hear that there is still a considerable 

 trade in oysters carried on at Hayling, and also at 

 Brading. A bed of oysters was discovered off Eastbourne 

 about three years since, the fish of a very superior and 

 delicate flavour. The price was Is. per hundred, but it 

 has risen to 2s., J and another large bed, which was valued 

 at £5000, was found about three miles off the mouth of 

 Dartmouth harbour, not very long ago. 



The late Duke of Northumberland most successfully 

 introduced oyster cultivation on the Northumbrian coast. 

 They were imported and established there, and the year 

 before last the fisheries were allowed to commence, when 

 they were found to have succeeded admirably. 



Messrs. Forbes and Hanley state that since the intro- 

 duction of steamboats and railroads, considerable quan- 

 tities of sea-oysters are brought from Falmouth and 

 Helford, in Cornwall, also from Scotland and Ireland; 

 the Irish oysters coming mostly from Carlingford, Ma- 

 lahide, Lissadell, Burran, Arklow, and Wexford. The 

 Carlingford oysters are well known, and they are dredged 

 by boats, each manned by from three to five men, who 

 take about fifty dozen per day. Each boat deposits its 

 oysters within a ring of small stones, till sold to dealers, 

 the place being marked by a buoy. A yearly fee of 5s. 

 is paid by each boat to the Marquis of Anglesey. The 



* Illustrated London News. f • Field,' Note by Editor. 



X ' Field,' February 27, 1864. 



