CHAPTER IX 



THE OYSTER 



Where the oyster is, and is not, found The Essex and North Kent 

 "flats" Development Restocking the beds" Brood" A day 

 of a dredger's life Description of the dredge Hauling up The 

 oyster's companions in the dredge Its enemies Measuring up 

 the "wash" The collecting boat Other kinds of oysters- 

 Typhoid ! 



IT is not possible to say for how many centuries the 

 oyster-fishery has existed ; before the Christian era had 

 begun, Roman epicures were turning up their noses at 

 Italian oysters because those from Gaul and Britain were 

 finer and more succulent. Certainly in the North Sea, the 

 English Channel, the Bay of Biscay, and various parts of 

 the Mediterranean, dredging in one form or other has 

 been practised from time immemorial. 



The fishmonger's price-list leads us to suppose that 

 oysters are found in Scotland, Colchester, Whitstable, 

 Holland, and America ; but, as a matter of fact, they are 

 taken in very great numbers almost everywhere. There 

 are, it is true, some few parts of the ocean where we 

 might dredge for ever without catching one. Professor 

 Huxley tells us the reason, viz. they cannot live and 

 breed in water containing less than three per cent, of 



in 



