IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND FRANCE. 177 



1 3. What private beds are in your district — distinguishing those that 

 are natural and artificial % 



14. State situation of each private bed, and the names and addresses 

 of the owners. 



15. Are there any, and if so, what means adopted to stock the private 

 natural beds 1 



16. Are there any natural beds in the neighbourhood of the artificial 

 ones'? 



1 7. State the nature of the artificial cultivation — whether on the fore- 

 shore or below it, and about the area actually taken up with artificial 

 cultivation 1 



18. If the artificial cultivation has not proved successful, to what is it 

 generally attributed 1 ? 



19. What private beds have been formed in your district? Give 

 names and addresses of owners, and locality of each bed 1 



20. Any general observations. 



To be returned with Replies to the Commissioners of Irish 

 Oyster Fisheries, Dublin. 



APPENDIX K. 

 Extract from the Commissioners' Report. 



" III. Reviewing the oyster fisheries which have been thus briefly de- 

 scribed under these two heads, it will be seen that the difference of the 

 systems pursued in them consists firstly, in the maintenance of a close- 

 season ; secondly, in a restriction as to the size of the oysters permitted 

 to be taken. 



" With respect to both of these points, in the estuary of the Thames 

 the witnesses examined by us all agree in deprecating any interference 

 by legislation ; they maintain that no benefit would result from such 

 measures to the public grounds, while the private grounds would be all 

 but ruined, and that the average supply of oysters to the market would 

 be greatly diminished ; and though their grounds have been without any 

 spat for some years they do not attribute this in any way to over- 

 dredging, but solely to natural causes over which they have as yet no 

 control. They confidently expect that when a favourable season recurs 

 their grounds will again be supplied with brood. 



" On the other hand, the local fishermen who dredge the beds in shal- 

 low water and in bays on all other parts of the coast are, with few 

 exceptions, in favour of the maintenance of a close-season ; they are also 

 opposed to the taking of small oysters for the purpose of laying them 

 down on beds distant from their own neighbourhood, though they are 

 not generally opposed to moving them for the purpose of laying them 

 down on beds of their own. 



" IV. We may now proceed to discuss these questions in detail. 



"We conceive it to be satisfactorily proved that any interference with 

 the working of the private oyster beds during the close-time would be 

 highly injurious. It is conclusively shown that it is only by very care- 

 ful working and superintendence that the injury resulting from the 

 deposit of mud and the growth of weeds can be repaired, and that the 

 destruction of the oysters on the great scale by inroads of mussels which 

 choke them, or of five-fingers which devour them, can be prevented. 

 Some of the evidence which has been laid before us in these heads is 

 worthy of the most careful attention. 



" 58,397. Do the mussels on the ground interfere with the oysters? — If we got mussels 

 among the oysters, they would very soon smother them. 



M 



