[3] THE OYSTER AND OYSTER-CULTURE. 685 
1.—THE SEA-FLATS. 
Among those oysters which are produced in the waters of the west 
coast of Europe the Holstein oyster has, for more than a hundred years, 
maintained a well-merited celebrity. The beds which furnish them lie 
along the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein, in a territory only 74 kilo- 
meters long by 22 broad. The most and the best oysters are found on 
the east side of the island of Sylt and in the neighborhood of the islands 
of Amrum and Fohr. . 
Along the northern boundary of the German oyster-territory, near 
the island of Rém, and along the southern boundary, near the islands of 
Pellworm and Nordstrand, opposite the city of Husum, there are only a 
few insignificant beds. And since the flavor of the oyster is entirely 
dependent upon the quality and quantity of food in the water in which 
it grows, it becomes necessary, first of all, to examine into the character 
of the soil and water of the Schleswig-Holstein Archipelago. In com- 
parison with the open North Sea this portion of our coast is a very 
shallow division of the ocean. Along the entire southern portion of the 
open North Sea, between Germany, Holland, England and Scotland, 
the general depth is from 35 to 45 meters. In no place in the Schles- 
wig-Holstein Archipelago is the water as deep as this, the greatest depth 
being 15 to 20 meters, and this only in the channels which connect it 
with the open sea. The floor of this archipelago is raised above the deep 
Fig. 1. 
The sea-flats, with three buoys indicating navigable water. In the background 
the Hallig Langeness is seen above the surface of the water. 
bottom of the open North Sea, very much like a high table-land. In this 
table-land valleys, varying in depth and width, have been cut out be- 
tween the islands and the mainland. At high water, the entire floor is 
covered, but at the end of the ebb-tide, very much of this table-land lies 
dry above the surface of the sea. These stretches of sea-bottom which 
thus become dry are termed “ Watten,” (plains or flats,) and from these 
“ Watten” this archipelago has received the name of “ Wattenmeer,” (sea- 
flats.). The water, which during the ebb-tide runs off from the flats, flows 
in both shallow and deep channels, called by the sailors “Leien” and 
“Tiefen,” partly in a northerly, partly in a southerly direction, into the 
