OSTREA EDULTS, Oil COMMON OYSTER. 157 



dens as a market gardener with his celery, aspara- 

 gus, and wall fruit. Here the government, with 

 a view to awaken the emulation of the spiritless 

 and poverty-stricken people of a region prolific 

 only of sand and dwarf pines, has founded two 

 model fish farms, for the experimentation of appa- 

 ratus and the perfecting of the methods of fixing 

 the spawn and ensuring the easy gathering of the 

 oyster harvest. The oyster heds arc formed of 

 fascines laid down in rows like the streets of a 

 town, their interstices being paved with tiles, stones, 

 &c. Over the roAvs of fascines are suspended move- 

 able floors and collecting roofs of tiles, covered 

 with putty (or cement?) stuck full of heart shells. 

 Beyond the region of fascines, floors, and roofs, 

 all of which arc covered so thickly with young 

 oysters that it would be impossible to stick a pin 

 between them, the floor of the bay is paved for a 

 considerable distance with oyster shells and car- 

 dium, to receive the young fish. No fewer than 

 one thousand oysters have repeatedly been counted 

 on a single tile; and not only have the quiet 

 Avaters of this curiously sheltered bay 

 proved to be peculiarly favorable to the in- 

 crease of the fish, but these arc found to be, 



