Common Oyster {Ostrea edulis). 245 



cost more trouble and expense than it is worth. It is not 

 only artificial oyster-beds which are claimed as private pro- 

 pei'ty, but many of those in the open sea, on various parts of 

 our coasts. 



Oysters of good repute are fished in the neighbourhood of 

 the Channel Islands. There are two oyster-banks, the one 

 off Guernsey and the other off Jersey. The former is of 

 little importance, the latter of considerable value. They 

 belong to the region of oyster-banks which extends along the 

 coasts of Normandy and Brittany. Dr Knapp informs us 

 that the number procured annually from them, for the use 

 of the Channel Islands and English markets, cannot be 

 less than 800,000 tubs, each tub containing two English 

 bushels ; and in some years thrice that quantity is be- 

 lieved to be procured from those banks during the season. 

 As many as three hundred cutters have been employed upon 

 them dredging. The oysters on the Jersey bank are of large 

 size, and are sold at from five to seven shillings the tub, or 

 from three to four pence the dozen. Milne-Edwards and 

 Audouiu state (in their Histoire Naturelle clu Littoral de la 

 France), that, during the year 1828, the total number 

 dredged on the French banks of this region was about 

 52,000,000, the average price of which was three francs 

 fifty cents for every " miller," i. e., twelve hundred. These 

 French oyster-banks are stated, by the authors quoted, to 

 yield a produce valued at from eight to nine hundred thou- 

 sand francs a-year. Before the French oyster-fisheries were 

 put under restrictions, the banks were deteriorating through 

 continual fishing. 



The oyster-fishery of most consequence in Scotland is that 

 of the Frith of Forth, respecting which some valuable infor- 

 mation has been communicated to us by Dr Knapp. The 

 oyster-beds there extend about twenty miles, from the island 

 of Mucra to Cockenzie, and are dredged in from four to six 

 or seven fathoms water. The best are procured near Burnt- 

 island, on a bed belonging to the Earl of Morton, — on the 

 rocky ground opposite Portobello, — and at Prestonpans. The 

 price varies, wholesale, from two shillings to two shillings 

 and sixpence per hundred ; the retail price from two shillings 



