THE OYSTER 



earning half as much as they otherwise might do. And 

 maybe the tide has been flowing for some time already ; 

 they have but an hour or so before they must put 

 back. Happily the wind is getting up once more, and 

 all six dredges are thrown in again. The men may well 

 be anxious to make hay while the sun shines ; when they 

 are not after brood they are either kept ashore by un- 

 favourable weather, or are " oystering " at four-and- 

 sixpence a day. Oystering, I may remark, is exactly the 

 same process as brood-getting, but that the men are work- 

 ing on a private ground and are rejecting everything but 

 the fish that are ready for eating. 



At length, good luck or bad, they dare stay no longer if 

 they are to get in before the tide turns again ; for very 

 likely they are miles away from home. As they come in 

 sight of the town we see the same kind of thing happening 

 as we witnessed with the trawlers ; two of the men jump into 

 the little boat, the sacks of brood are handed out to 

 them and they pull rapidly away to a smack labelled 

 " collecting-boat." Round this are scores of little boats, 

 their crews waiting to give up their catches and have them 

 measured. In some cases however the catch is taken ashore 

 to a sorting house. The brood thus procured will be re- 

 planted in some special part of the oyster park, dropped 

 down from smacks by the handful as if one were sowing 

 seeds. 



This is an average day of a dredger's life in good 

 weather. In winter-time he must necessarily earn but 

 little ; the hours of daylight are very limited ; there are 

 fogs about ; and, more, if a frost sets in, he can take him- 



121 



