50 



Whether this extensive fishing is beyond the capacity of the beds or not, cannot be accurately 

 stated; the only information on the subject obtainable being the statements of the oystermen that 

 the beds are deteriorating from that cause. But an estimation of the effect of excessive fishing 

 may be formed by examining its results upon such beds in England and France as have records 

 upon the subject. The most instructive of these are the records of the production of the beds of 

 Cancale Bay, on the northwest coast of France, which extend over a period of sixty-eight years — 

 from 1800 to 1868. The beds in the bay comprise an area of about 150 acres, and from 1800 to 1816 

 produced from 400,000 to 2,400,000 a year. This, however, was the period of the Napoleonic wars 

 and the fishing was much disturbed by the presence of the English cruisers. During this time 

 the beds became so thickly stocked that the oysters were in some places a yard thick. After the 

 close of the war the fishing improved and the oysters were removed in larger and increasing 

 numbers until 1843. From 1823 to 1848 it is supposed that the dredgers were living upon the 

 oysters accumulated during the period of enforced rest, from 1800 to 1816. In 1817 the number 

 of oysters produced was 5,600,000, and until 1843 there was a constant increase, the number taken 

 in the latter year being 70,000,000. In 1848 it was 60,000,000; thenceforward there was a constant 

 decrease. From 1850 to 1856 the decrease was from 50,000,000 to 18,000,000, supposed to be the 

 effect of overdredging. From 1859 to 1868 the decrease was from 16,000,000 to 1,079,000; the 

 oysters having almost entirely disappeared from the beds, though on account of the suffering con- 

 dition of the inhabitants of the shores it was almost impossible to prevent it. In 1870 there was 

 a complete wreck of the bottom which could only be remedied by a total prohibition of the fisheries 

 for several years. 



From the beds of the districts of Bochefort, Marennes, and island of Oleron, on the west coast 

 of France, there were taken in 1853-'54 10,000,000 oysters, and in 1854-'55 15,000,000. On ac- 

 count of exhausti ve fishing, in 1863-'64 only 400,000 could be obtained. 



According to the testimony of Mr. Webber, mayor of Falmouth, England, about 700 men, 

 working 300 boats, were employed in a profitable oyster fishery in the neighborhood of Falmouth 

 until 1866, when the old laws enforcing a "close time" were repealed, under an impression that, 

 owing to the great productive powers of the oyster, it would be impossible to remove a sufficient 

 number to prevent the re-stocking of the beds. Since 1866 the beds have become so impoverished 

 from excessive and continual fishing that in 1876 only 40 men and 40 boats could find employment, 

 and small as the number is, they could not take more than 60 or 100 oysters a day, while formerly, 

 in the same time, a boat could take from 10,000 to 12,000. 



According to the statement of Mr. Messum, an oyster dealer and secretary of an oyster com- 

 pany at Emsworth, England, made before the Commission for the Investigation of Oyster Fish, 

 eries, in May, 1876, there were in the harbor of Emsworth, between the years of 1840 and 1850, so 

 many oysters that one man in five hours could take from 24,000 to 32,000. In consequence of over- 

 fishing, in 1858 scarcely ten vessels could find loads, and in 1868 a dredger in five hours could not 

 find more than twenty oysters. 



The oyster fisheries of Jersey, in the English Channel, afforded employment to 400 vessels. 

 In six or seven years the dredging became so extensive and the beds so exhausted that only three 

 or four vessels could find employment, and the crews of even that small number had to do addi- 

 tional work on shore in order to support themselves. 



The foregoing are a few of, though by no means all, the instances that maybe quoted in order 

 to show the disastrous effects of overworking the beds, and in concluding the remarks under that 

 head it will be instructive to extract from Professor Mobius' work his prophecy with regard to our 

 own beds, which is here introduced: 



" In North America the oysters axe so fine and so cheap that they are eaten daily by all classes. 

 Hence they are now, and have been for a long time, a real means of subsistence for the people. 

 This enviable fact is no argument against the injuriousness of a continuous and severe fishing of 

 the beds. * * * But as the number of consumers increases in America the price will also surely 

 advance and then there will arise a desire to fish the banks more severely than hitherto, and if they 

 do not accept in time the unfortunate experience of the oyster culturists of Europe, they will surely 

 find their oyster beds impoverished for having defied the bioconotie laws." . 



The question now to be decided is how the protection of the beds and their improvement is to 



