CHAP. vin. J THE NEWHAVEN OYSTEK-BEDS. 375 



much as the English and Scotch do in their " Natives" and 

 "Pandores." 



The far-famed Scottish oysters obtained near Edinburgh, 

 and once so cheap, are becoming scarce and dear, and the 

 scalps or beds are being so rapidly overfished that, in a 

 short time, if the devastation be not at once stopped, the 

 pandore and Newhaven oysters will soon be but names. 

 Some of the greediest of the dredgermen actually capture the 

 brood, and, barrelling it up, send it away to Holland and other 

 places, to supply the artificial beds now being constructed off 

 that coast. English buyers also come and pick up all they 

 can procure for the Manchester and other markets. Thus 

 there is an inducement, in the shape of a good price, to the 

 Newhaven men to spoliate the beds another illustration of 

 " killing the goose for the golden egg." The growth of the 

 railway system has also extended the Newhaven men's 

 market. Before the railway period very few boats went out 

 at the same time to dredge ; then oysters were very plentiful 

 so plentiful, in fact, that three men in a boat could, with 

 ease, procure 3000 oysters in a couple of hours ; but now, so 

 great is the change in the productiveness of the scalps, that 

 three men consider it an excellent day's work to procure 

 about the fifth part of that quantity. The ISTewhaven oyster- 

 beds lie between Inchkeith and ISTewhaven, and belong to the 

 city of Edinburgh, and were given in charge to the free fisher- 

 men of that village, on certain conditions, which are at pre- 

 sent systematically disregarded. The rental paid by the 

 Newhaven men to the city is 10 per annum, and a sum of 

 25 per annum is paid by the same parties for the use of the 

 oyster-beds belonging to the Duke of Buccleuch, which are also 

 situated in the Firth of Forth, just off the port of Granton ; and 

 besides these there are one or two beds in the Firth of Forth of 

 considerable size belonging to the crown, which have been also 

 worked by the Newhaven men. The beds are of great extent, 



