1 74 " Natives " of Pont and Kentish Flats. 



It is well known that after such seasons as have been deemed 

 favourable for oyster spatting, a multitude of young brood and 

 half ware are obtained in the neighbourhood of the cultivated 

 oyster layings. Thus, for instance, the last few years back along 

 the foreshore above Soathend young oysters have been plenti- 

 ful. Even on the pier piles there, and old wooden pier, Herne 

 Bay, they have been found sparsely. Still more strangely, an 

 oyster was met with developed in a sea-water tank, used for 

 flushing, placed high up in the buildings at the end of South end 

 pier. Nor is this a solitary instance, for spat and young oysters 

 have been found in the Hospital Tank, Boy, Sea-Bathing Infir- 

 mary, Margate, and in a large bath at Herne Bay.* In these 

 cases the spat doubtless had been pumped up with the sea 

 water, and the free-swimming larva, on finding a clean surface, 

 settled and grew accordingly. 



It may be added that the public grounds at the mouth of 

 the Blackwater (= Pont), notwithstanding constant dredging, 

 appear to continue fairly productive, rather by the timely float- 

 ing thither from the cultivated Tollesbury, Mersea and Black- 

 water layings, and those of the River Colne and Pyfleet Creek, 

 than entirely depending on the spawn shed within the natural 

 oyster bed itself, f Again, around both east and west of the 

 Whitstable Company's layings, and in particular on the Kentish 

 Flats, young and matured oysters are obtained; and when a 

 heavy fall of spat takes place, as it has done recently, it gives 

 employment to many hundreds of fishermen. Some of these 

 oysters in question are within easy distance of the cultivated 

 layings, others much further off, a good deal depending 011 the 

 state of the weather and tides at the time of the parent's 

 spawning. Something similar on a smaller scale, with modifica- 

 tions, obtains on the Burnham River and elsewhere. These 



* Henry Lee in Land and Water, May, 1871. 



t An opinion also held by Fulton, Report cited. Buckland mentions conversely 

 that the natural beds seaward of the Isle of R (France) famish the spat which floats 

 shorewards and enriches the oyster pares. 



