292 



UTILITARIAN ZOOLOGY 



green, and for the same reason. Certain green oysters, however, 

 should be looked upon with suspicion, as, for example, some of 

 those from Cornwall, in which the colour is due to the presence 

 of copper. 



The last process to which some of the French oysters are 

 subjected is that of education for transport. They are gradually 

 accustomed to be out of water, and to close their valves closely, 

 which clearly enables them to be sent in a good condition for 

 long distances. 



English Oyster- Industry. That this industry is of considerable 

 importance will already have been gathered from the statistics on 



page 280. We may take 

 as an example the Whit- 

 stable Oyster Fishery 

 Company, which is one 

 of the most notable. As 

 to its yield of oysters, the 

 Secretary of the Com- 

 pany, Mr. W. H. Reeves, 

 writes in a private letter: 

 "With regard to statis- 

 tics I can only say that 

 our own sales of oysters 

 average about 10 million 

 to 1 2 million yearly, and 

 of this number about two- 

 thirds are English Natives and the rest imported from France, 

 with a small percentage of East River oysters from America ". 

 As most persons are aware, Whitstable is on the north coast 

 of Kent, east of the Isle of Sheppey, and has been an important 

 seat of the oyster-trade from very remote times. The details 

 here given are derived from a book by A. O. Collard (The 

 Oyster and Dredgers of Whitstable], to which readers are referred 

 for further information. The following quotation from this book 

 will give an idea of the length of time for which " natives " 

 have been popular: "Among some valuable notes attached to 

 the evidence taken on oath in the Committee of the House of 

 Lords in 1866, on certain bills promoted by the Herne Bay 

 Fishery Company, I find the following observations : ' The 

 Whitstable Company are a most ancient body of ' free fishers 



Fig. 1212. Shell of a Whitstable Native, with young Oysters attached. 

 Reduced. 



