128 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSCS. 



down a fresh supply of young oysters on the beds, a 

 certain quantity should be provided for their enemies 

 to feed upon, and thus save the others.* Incessant 

 war is waged against the dog-whelk, but the numbers 

 do not decrease. It is known by the name of Cormaillot, 

 or Perceur. Again, cold weather has a most pernicious 

 effect upon the spat, for if the water is not warm 

 enough the spat dies. Oysters will not even spawn if 

 the weather is too cold. Some of our principal beds 

 are those of Whitstable, Rochester, Colchester, Milton, 

 Faversham, Queenborough, and Burnham. Colchester 

 has been celebrated for its oysters from a remote period, 

 and they were deemed an appropriate present from the 

 authorities of the town to ministers of state, and other 

 eminent persons. We hear of their having been sent, 

 in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to Leicester and Wal- 

 singham.f At the annual Colchester Oyster Feast, 

 held in the Town-hall, October, 1862, Mr. Miller, M.P., 

 mentioned that Mr. Goody, clerk to the Colne Fishery 

 Company, with himself and a few other gentlemen, had 

 appealed to the Treasury, because it was apprehended 

 that Belgium, to which a large number of oysters are 

 sent, was about to impose a duty which would inflict a 

 serious injury upon the town. However, it was found 

 from the interview that there was no immediate pro- 

 spect of the anticipated danger, and a treaty was con- 

 cluded with Belgium, in which a special reservation 

 had been made in respect to oysters. J The oysters 

 sent to Belgium are fattened in the Ostend beds, and 

 then called " Ostend oysters." They are very plump 



* ' Report on Oyster Fisheries of France,' by Major Hayes, 1878. 

 f Cromwell's ' History of Colchester,' vol. ii. 

 J The Times,' October, 1862. 



