CHAP. VIIL] BEST CONDITIONS FOR SPAWNING. 341 



Buckland, I believe, assumes that the more favourable spawn- 

 ing on the French coast of the Bay of Biscay is caused by 

 the greater, because more direct, influence of the Gulf Stream 

 on the waters there than in the English Channel, but this idea 

 is also disputed. If the oyster does not spawn every year it 

 would require to emit an enormous quantity in those favour- 

 able years when it does spawn, so as to keep up the supply. 

 On being exuded from the parental shell, the spawn of the 

 oyster at once rises to the surface, where its vitality is easily 

 affected, and it is often killed in certain places by snow-water 

 or ice. A genial warmth of sunshine and water is considered 

 highly favourable to its proper development during the few 

 days it floats about on the surface. It is thought that not 

 more than one oyster out of each million arrives at maturity. 

 It is curious to note that some oysters have immense shells 

 with very little " meat " in them. I recently saw in a popular 

 tavern (date Sept. 29, 1864), several oysters much larger ex- 

 ternally than crown-pieces with the " meat " about the size of 

 a sixpence : these were Firth of Forth oysters from Cockenzie. 

 It is not easy to determine from the external size of the 

 animal the amount of " meat " it will yield apparently, " the 

 bigger the oyster the smaller the meat." In the early part of 

 the season we get only the very small oysters in Edinburgh 

 the reason assigned being that all the best dredgers are 

 " away at the herring," and that the persons left behind at the 

 oyster-beds are only able to skim them, so that, for a period 

 of about six weeks, we merely obtain the small fry that are 

 lying on the top. It is quite certain that as the season ad- 

 vances the oysters obtained are larger and of more decided 

 flavour. In the "natives" obtained at Whitstable the shell 

 and the meat are pretty much in keeping as to size, and this 

 is an advantage. 



The Abbe Diquemarc, who has keenly observed the habits 

 of the principal mollusca, assures us that oysters, when free, are 



