THE AUSTRALIAN OYSTER. 121 



seed oysters adhering to cobbler's pegs, mangroves, whelks, twigs of dead 

 branches of trees situated within tidal influence, and small broken pieces of 

 stone ; and have placed these in the positions which they considered the best 

 for inducing them to mature, or in positions where by experience they knew 

 oysters had thriven well in past years, before the ruthless v/holesale removal 

 of them was carried on by dredging. As a rule, these oyster culturists have 

 met with disappointment, although I do not believe our oyster beds are in 

 the impoverished conditions which the public is generally led to suppose 

 them to be. A few far-seeing of the number have steadily been acquiring 

 very large leased areas ; and these few have, it appears to me, been quietly 

 stocking their newly-acquired leases, without disturbing them by wishing to 

 get a rapid return for an important investment. That a large return will in 

 very many instances be the result of this prudent forethought I have no 

 doubt. On the other hand, I regret to say that there have been many cases 

 in which well-stocked shores have been taken up with no other object than to 

 denude those shores of every oyster which existed on tliem, and not with the 

 intention of improving them. JSfo doubt, even the most intelligent of our oyster 

 culturists have met with very serious disappointment in their investments ; 

 and I attribute their want of success to several causes which they have not 

 sufBciently thought about. One of these is that they expect that the seed 

 oysters which they obtained from between high and low-water mark {ostrecB 

 cucidlatcB, or rock oysters) will produce ostreae suhtrigonce, or drift oysters if 

 placed on beds on which we know drift oysters once throve in abundance. I 

 have, myself, always considered that these two kinds of oysters are different ; 

 but other conchologists have differed from me in this opinion, and believe that 

 our rock oyster and our drift oyster are one and the same mollusc found 

 uuder different conditions in greater depth of water. 



Our mud oyster seems to have been absolutely ignored by our oyster 

 culturists in their endeavours to cultivate the mollusc as an article of food. 

 It is strange that this mud oyster, which only differs in a very slight degree 

 in the form of its shell from the oyster (ostrea edulis) which supplies the 

 European markets, should have been so ignored by them. The slight 

 differences in its shell have induced conchologists to recognise it by another 

 scientific name {ostrea angasi), for purposes of identification ; otherwise it 

 is undoubtedly the same mollusc which supplies the European markets; and 

 a variety of which is the oyster with which the markets of the United 

 States are principally supplied. There this variety of it is known — also for 

 purposes of identification — as ostrea borealis. A variety of the same oyster, 

 in the opinion of no less an authority than Professor Hutton, exists on the 

 New Zealand coast, and threatens to become a formidable opponent to our 

 New South AVales oyster. I am quite sure that were our mud oyster cul- 

 tivated and educated as it is now in Europe, it would be brought to the same 

 perfection as the European and American oyster. The cry is that it will 

 not keep and will not carry. The same was said of the European oyster 

 until its cultivators came to discover that by a gradual process of raising, it 

 might be educated to keep quite long enough for all commercial purposes. 

 I have myself tried many experiments with this oyster ; and I have satisfied 

 myself that it will live out of the water certainly from ten days to a fortnight 

 if educated to do so. It is owing to the known habits of this Species, as it 

 appears in the United States waters, especially as reported upon in the 

 United States Commission of Eish and Fisheries of 1880, that some of our 

 oyster culturists have jumped to the conclusion that our drii't oyster and our 

 rock oyster are not replenished by seed oysters from our estuaries and rivers, 

 but from beds of oysters which exist in the open sea, the spawn of which is 



