Kent and Essex Oyster Grounds; Whitstdble, &c. 15 



varied by occasional freshets from the rivers. But the great 

 factor of the oysters thriving and breeding so well in the Thames 

 Estuary, and the creeks and waters connected therewith, is the 

 abundance of diatoms, foraminifera and such like microscopic 

 plants and animals. On the muddy clay, when dry at ebb, 

 there is everywhere a coating of olive-brown, slimy looking 

 material, otherwise a delicate film of diatoms of various species. 

 Now nothing equals the unctuous blue London clay locally 

 known as " clyte " together with brackish water, for the 

 fostering of these lowly organized algae. Add to this a sub- 

 stratum of gravel and shelly sand, with just sufficient superficial 

 deposit, teeming as it does with microscopic life, and you have 

 a choice home* for the sedentary oyster and its molluscan 

 fraternity, &c. 



Take Whitstable, for example, which is peculiarly and 

 happily situated. This, inasmuch as the neighbouring Isle of 

 Sheppey (a mass of London clay constantly tumbling from the 

 cliffs), aided by a slight south-easterly ebb current, regularly 

 bring abundant supply of oyster- food. The Whitstable grounds, 

 moreover, are BO placed as to miss the full force of the North 

 Sea flood-current, which passes in a somewhat south-westerly 

 direction from the Swin and Deeps round the opposite Essex 

 coast up-river. The Kentish Flats area, again, lie to a certain 

 extent in a comparatively neutral tidal zone, or, rather, sea- 

 eddy ; for there is a perceptible volume of the warmer Dover 

 Strait ebb-wave pressed round the North Foreland partially 

 along the North Kent shore. Therefore, freely bathed alter- 

 nately with copious supply of sea and brackish water, with 

 plenitude of " culch " derived from centuries of oyster growth, 

 constant cleaning of the grounds, &c., all the conditions of 

 healthy, successful oyster culture are present. 



Other nooks in Essex, with degrees in variation of condi- 

 tions, fully sustain the reputation for edible shell-fish rearing 

 and culture which our Sea-Fisheries District bears. 



* Vide Winslow's Description of Natural Beds, Rep. Oyster Beds, James River, 

 Virginia, 1881 ; also Anson & Willett, "Oyster Culture," Lond., 1884. 



