OYSTEE-CULTUKE IN AUSTKALASIA. 561 



covery for restocking the inshore fisheries, and for estabhshing 

 in association therewith that system of leasehold culture that 

 yields so substantial a revenue to the Colonies of Queensland 

 and New South Wales. Acting upon these lines, many years 

 should not elapse before Victoria will be in a position to 

 produce from her own waters a substantial portion, if not the 

 whole, of the vast quantities of oysters annually consumed 

 within her territory. 



Through official sources I have been quite recently informed 

 that about seventy bags of oysters have been so far obtained 

 by the experimental dredging off the Victorian coast. These 

 oysters are described as of poor quality, and as having realised 

 a price of from 5s. to 15s. per bag only in the market. Like 

 the ocean-dredged oysters in British waters, they evidently 

 require cultivation before they can be brought up to a high 

 commercial or gastronomic standard. But, as indicated in the 

 foregoing paragraph, they are eminently fitted for collection and 

 laying down as a nucleus towards the resuscitation of the 

 depleted inshore fisheries. 



New South Wales. 

 On proceeding to discuss the oyster fisheries of New South 

 Wales, a separate species of oyster, associated with separate 

 conditions of growth and propagation, has to be taken into 

 consideration. The commercial species of this colony is the 

 familiar rock-oyster, Ostrea glomerata. At the same time a 

 mud-oyster, identical with or most closely allied to the Vic- 

 torian and Tasmanian type, Ostrea edulis, occurs in some 

 numbers upon the coast, but in consequence of the hitherto 

 profuse abundance of the rock variety it has not been con- 

 sidered worthy of commercial attention. In form and general 

 aspect the New South Wales rock-oyster somewhat resembles 

 the Portuguese oyster, Ostrea angulata, and also the American, 

 Ostrea virgineana. With these two species it further corre- 

 sponds in its breeding habits, which are essentially distinct 

 from those of the English, Victorian, and Tasmanian mud- 

 oyster, Ostrea edulis. In the last-named type, as is familiar 

 to those who can claim an intimate acquaintance with the 

 British native, there is a time when that sapid mollusc is most 

 decidedly out of season. On opening it, it is found to be filled 

 with grey, gritty matter, that feels like sand in the mouth. 

 Placed under the microscope, this gritty substance is found to 

 consist of millions of minute oysters, each enclosed by a pair of 

 perfect transparent shells, and which, in the course of a few 

 days or weeks, would be ripe for liberation into the surround- 

 ing water. This species of oyster, in fact, nurses its brood, or 

 spat, previously fertilised in the mantle-cavities of its parent, 

 up to an advanced stage of development. The same pheno- 

 36 



