396 THE OCEAN WORLD. 
proceeds from a green-coloured infusorial animalcule. Others have 
hazarded the opinion that itis a disease of the liver in our unfortunate 
bivalve which produces the colour. Bile secreted in excess by a 
diseased liver would give a green hue to the parenchyma of the 
respiratory organs of an animal rendered sick by the exceptional 
treatment to which it has been subjected. Of these three opinions, 
says M. Figuier, the first, as we have said, presents the greatest 
appearance of probability. ; 
The system of oyster farms, which has worked admirably for the 
companies themselves, has proved of doubtful utility, so far as the 
oyster-eating public is concerned, as the following sketch of the 
Whitstable oyster farms will show. The oyster farm at Whitstable is 
co-operative in the best sense of the term, and has been in operation 
for many years. The company possesses large oyster grounds, and 
a fine fleet of boats kept for the purpose of dredging and planting the 
beds; it is established under the Joint-Stock Companies Act, but 
there is no other way of entrance into it but by birth, as none of the 
free dredgermen of the town can hold shares. When a man dies his 
interest in the company dies with him, but his widow, if he leaves 
one, obtains a pension. The affairs of the company are managed 
by twelve directors, who are called “ the jury.” 
“The layings at Whitstable,” to summarise Mr. Bertram, “‘ occupy 
about a mile and a half square; and the oyster-beds have been so 
prosperous as to have obtained the name of the ‘happy fishing 
grounds.’ Whitstable lies in a sandy bay, formed by a small branch 
of the Medway, which separates the Isle of Sheppey from the main- 
land. Throughout this bay, from the town of Whitstable at its 
eastern extremity to the old town of Faversham, which lies several 
miles inland, the whole of the estuary is occupied by oyster farms, 
on which the maritime population, to the extent of 3,000 people 
and upwards, is occupied ; the sum paid for labour by the various 
companies being set down at £160,000 per annum, besides the 
employment given at Whitstable in building and repairing boats, 
dredges, and other requisites for the oyster-fishing. The business of 
the various companies is to feed oysters for the London and other 
markets, to protect the spawn or floatsome, as the dredgers call it, 
which is emitted on their own beds, and to furnish, by purchase or 
otherwise, the new brood necessary to supply the beds which have 
been taken up for consumption.” 
We have hinted above that in oyster, as in other fisheries, a 
wasteful spirit of extravagance has hitherto prevailed. It appears, 
