THEOEY OF THE SPAT. 253 



close time for oysters is a law of the land ; but for all that we 

 might have — indeed, we have now — oysters all the year round, 

 because all oysters do not sicken or spat at the same period ; 

 in fact the economy of fish growth is not yet understood either 

 by naturalists or fishermen ; as an instance of mal-economy we 

 have salmon rivers closed at the very time they ought to be 

 open, some rivers being remarkable for early spawning fish, 

 whilst others are equally so for the tardiness with which their 

 scaly inhabitants repeat, the story of their birth. In time, when 

 we understand better how to manage our fisheries, the supplies 

 of all kinds of round and shell fish will doubtless be better 

 regulated than at present. 



The following theory of the spat wsa promulgated hy the author 

 through the columns of the Times t — " In an open expanse of sea the 

 spat may he carried to great distances hy tidal influence, or a sharp 

 breeze upon the water may waft the oyster-seed many a long mile 

 away. Every bed has its own time of spatting— thus, one of a series of 

 scalps may he spatting on a fine warm day, when the sea is like glass, so 

 that the spat cannot fail to fall ; while on another portion of the beds the 

 spat may fall on a windy day, be thus left to the tender mercy of a 

 fiercely receding tide, and so be lost, or faU mayhap on ungenial bottom a 

 long way from the shore. On the Isle of Oleron, which supplies the green 

 oyster breeders of Marennes with such large quantities, it is quite certain 

 that in the course of the summer a friendly wave wiU waft large quantities 

 of spat into the artificial pares, when it is known that the oysters in these 

 pares have not spawned. Where does this foreign spat come from ? The 

 men say it comes off some of the natural beds of the adjoining sea — is 

 driven in by the tide, and finds a welcome resting-place on the artificial 

 receivers of their pares.' It is altogether an erroneous idea to suppose that 

 there are some seasons when the oyster does not spat, because of the cold 

 weather, etc. Some of the pares had spatted a.t Aroachon this year [1866] 

 in very ungenial weather. The spatting of the oyster does not depend on 

 the weather at all, but the destination of the spat does, because if the tiny 

 seedling oyster does not fall on propitious ground it is lost for ever. New 

 oyster-beds are often discovered in places where it is certain oysters did not 

 exist in previous years. How came they then to be formed ? The spat 

 must have been blown upon that ground by the ill wind that carried it 

 away from the spot where it was expected -to fall. If the spat exuded by 

 the large quantity of oysters Imown to be stocked in the pares at Whit- 

 stable, in Kent, the home of the "native," were always to fall on the 

 oultch of Whitstable, instead of on the adjoining flats and elsewhere, the 

 company would soon become enojmonsly wealthy. 



