8 
between tide-marks. Many were attached to stones. It 
is consequently a natural oyster-bed, but it is evident 
from the condition of the specimens examined that there 
is not sufficient food on the ground or in the water to 
constitute the locality a good fattening area. The bodies 
of the oysters were found to be very thin and in poor 
condition generally. 
The bed is entirely covered at each tide, and only ebbs 
completely dry at low water of an eighteen-foot tide with 
favourable weather. The bottom is hard, being composed 
of gravel and shells, with some fine mud_ between. 
Samples from the ground and from the water showed that 
diatoms and other minute forms of life which are so 
necessary in the case of a flourishing oyster fishery were 
so few as to be almost absent. It is quite possible that 
during summer, at the breeding season, more microscopic 
food may be present—perhaps due.in part to the river, 
and it is probable that the bed in favourable seasons 
forms a good enough spatting ground; but all the 
evidence before us shows that it is not a favourable 
locality for the rearing and fattening of oysters. Pro- 
bably the best plan would be to use it as a place for the 
production of spat, from which a certain proportion of the 
young oysters should be transferred to other localities 
where they can be more satisfactorily nourished. I think 
it worth while to try whether if would not be possible 
by the judicious placing of tiles and other collectors, 
and by certain obstructions in the water channels over 
the bed, to largely increase the deposit of spat; and I 
should recommend that some of the half-grown oysters 
be removed to certain grounds in the neighbourhood of 
Piel, on the south and south-east sides of Foulney Island, 
which we know to be richly supplied with diatoms and the 
othe unecessary food, in order that their growth may be 
