112 THE OYSTER,. 



Mr. Frank Buckland, when assisting him in his 

 management of the Herne Bay Oyster Fishery 

 during the past summer, I shall endeavour to 

 describe some of the most peculiar features in the 

 artificial culture of these molluscs, which are as 

 much improved in size and flavour by proper care 

 and attention as any of our present breeds of sheep 

 or oxen. With reference to the principal varieties 

 of the oyster, the Whitstable for the last twenty 

 years has generally been considered as possessing 

 the most delicate flesh, combined with the thinnest 

 and smallest shell of any of our British varieties. 

 The Swansea, Colchester, and Faversham oysters 

 are also considered of excellent quality, but their 

 chief fault is, that they vary very much in differ- 

 ent seasons, the produce of one year possibly being 

 equal to the best Whitstable or Isle de Ee oyster, 

 while the crop in the next may be vastly inferior 

 in every way. The beds in Galway Bay would 

 naturally produce an extremely good kind, but as 

 they have remained in a dreadfully neglected state 

 under bad management for several years, the oysters 

 have sadly deteriorated in both number and quality. 

 The large Channel oyster, the sort generally sold at 

 stalls in the streets, is an almost worthless variety, 

 possessing great thickness of shell, with but a 

 small amount of tasteless and insipid flesh. 



I now come to a rather important variety, namely, 



