690 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [8] _ 
‘houses, churches, windmills, and houses. Their vessels are yacht-like, 
with a capacity of from three to six tons. Hach one generally carries 
two sailors in addition to the owner. 
Upon the Schleswig-Holstein banks there are fourteen vessels en- 
gaged in the oyster business. When the wind is favorable and brisk, 
four dredges can be used at the same time; but with a light wind, two, 
or one only can be dragged. They are fastened by means of strong 
ropes to the windward side of the vessel. One hand is kept upon the 
dredge-rope, in order to tell by the feel whether it is passing over smooth 
ground or over oyster-beds, for the rope is given an irregular, jerking 
motion upon rough bottom. Generally the net is allowed to drag from 
five to ten minutes; then it is drawn up by two or three men, and the 
entire contents of the bag emptied upon the deck. This mass consists 
of old oyster-shells, mussels of various kinds, living oysters, snails, crabs, 
worms, star-fish, sea-urchins, polyps, sponges, and sea-weeds, which are 
generally mixed up with sand and mud. From this heterogeneons heap 
all the matured oysters are now picked out. As they pass singly 
through the hands of the fishermen, the coarsest of the foreign material 
is cut and scraped from the shells with a knife, and then the oysters 
are thrown into baskets. In these they are shaken about, in order to 
get off any material which has escaped the knife. Ropes are then fastened 
around the baskets, which are put overboard, and raised and lowered in 
the sea until all dirt is completely washed from the oysters. They are 
now for the first time in the condition in which they appear in commerce. 
Despite these manifold cleansings, many oysters when they. are exposed 
for sale are covered with dead and living animals, and the peculiar 
odor which oysters have when carried into the interior arises from the 
death and decay of the organic material upon the outside of the shells, 
and does not pertain to the living oyster itself. In no place upon the 
sea-flats do oysters grow upon rocky bottom. They grow best where 
there is a substratum of old oyster and other shells. The most of them 
lie singly, and they are seldom found growing together in clumps or 
masses. The wide-spread notion that they are found growing firmly 
attached to the sea-bottom, and piled upon one another, layer upon layer, 
is accordingly false. Upon the best of the Schleswig-Holstein beds the 
dredge must drag over a surface of from 1 to 3 square meters, and often 
overa still greater distance, in order to secure a single full-grown oyster. 
Over the Schleswig-Holstein sea-flats there exist 50 oyster-beds of very 
different sizes. The largest is not far from 2 kilometers long, but the 
greater number are shorter than this. Their breadth is much less than 
their length, which is in the same direction as the channels along the 
slopes of which they lie. The greater number of the beds have a depth 
of water of at least 2 meters above them when the ebb-tide has left the 
neighboring flats dry. 
There are no beds upon our sea-flats which have a greater, depth of 
water over them than from 6 to 9 meters. Although all the beds 
