Common Oyster {Ostrea edtdis), 247 



On both sides of Ireland oysters abound in many places, 

 and some of the banks are valuable, producing oysters in 

 abundance, and of good quality. In the west, the most 

 famous are Burton Bindon's oysters, which are highly 

 esteemed in Dublin. They are the Burran oysters, brought 

 from the Burran bank in Galway Bay, where they are laid 

 down artificially, after having been originally dredged chiefly 

 near Achil Head. There are oyster-beds in the Shannon, 

 said, in 1836, to yield a revenue of £1400 annually, and to 

 employ seventy men and sixteen boats. Some small oyster- 

 beds in Clare are private property, and yield various incomes, 

 as do those also in Cork harbour, but none of them are of 

 any extent. Oysters are dredged from natui*al beds on the 

 coast of Wexfoi'd and elsewhere, in order to be laid down on 

 the Beaumaris beds. The most renowned of the Irish oyster- 

 fisheries is that of Carlingford. The shell-fish are there 

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

 who take about fifty dozen a-day. The oysters of each boat 

 are deposited within a ring of lai'ge stones till sold, the place 

 being marked by a buoy. They are sold to dealers only, at 

 from 8d. to 2s. per ten dozen. A yearly fee of 5s. is paid by 

 each boat to the Marquis of Anglesey. The fishermen earn 

 from 4d. to Is. 6d. per diem, and are mostly landholders.* 



There are natural oyster-beds in Belfast Bay, on banks at 

 a depth of from 12 to 25 fathoms. Mr W. Thomson informs 

 us that, in March 1848, he had the four largest oysters se- 

 lected from about five hundred taken on these beds, and by 

 weighing them l^efore their being opened, found tw^o to be 

 each one pound and a-half, the third one pound and three- 

 quarters, and the fourth two pounds imperial weight. " The 

 two largest oysters," he states, " on being taken from their 

 shells, weighed each an ounce and a-half, and the others 

 somewhat less. The oysters from which these were selected 

 were sold at the rate of sixteen shillings for the one hundred 

 and twenty-four. The shells were in length from 5A to 6| 

 inches ; in breadth, from 5 inches to 5 J ; and in depth, with 

 the valves closed, 2i inches." There are oyster-beds partly 



* Itepoi't on Irish Fisheries for 183G. 



