CONTINENTAL OYSTER CULTURE. 371 



50 yards wide, and 5 to 8 yards deep, with an earthy mud bottom ; 

 the water is rich in organisms. In April, 1893, recourse was 

 had to the Italian fascine collectors, and the Tarantine system of 

 rearing. The growth of the Oysters so reared was very rapid. 

 After seven months' treatment they increased to a diameter of 

 2f to 2f in., or at the rate of f in. per month. 



At Bandon, near Fasana, Oyster culture under Signor A. 

 Gareis has for some time been in use. In a depth of 4 yards at 

 average half-tide, a palisade of fifteen rows of stakes has been 

 erected, the stakes being set 5 yards apart, and united by an iron 

 wire. From this wire, collectors laden with young Oysters from 

 Pola are suspended one yard apart. The first collectors were 

 metal rectangular frames 4 yards long, with thirty-six to forty iron 

 vertical blades about 32 in. long ; but these were abandoned in 

 favour of wooden frames, from which hung juniper branches. 

 These wooden collectors, which proved cheaper and more durable 

 than iron, are dipped in pitch and sand before use. The young 

 Oysters remain on them until fully reared. 



To give the final fattening, Signor Gareis has constructed a 

 small basin, 30 by 20 yards, with gravel and pebble bottom. The 

 basin is divided into compartments, 1 by 10 yards, and is fitted 

 with sluices opening with the flood and closing with the ebb. By 

 this means the Oysters even at low tide are still covered with 12 in. 

 of water, whilst at high tide there is more than one yard. The 

 sea-water near the basin is mixed with fresh, and the fattening of 

 the Oysters is very rapid. 



Near Jagnina, artificial Oyster-rearing is conducted by Signor 

 S. Bielovucic. An arm of the sea, surrounded by hills, forms a 

 lagoon of some 200,000 square yards. The bottom is mostly 

 sand mixed with clay. The depth of water varies from 5 yards 

 at the extremities to 3J- yards at the middle, whence it shoals off 

 towards the west shore, leaving there a slip of about 10 yards 

 wide dry at low water. The collectors used were, at first, ninety 

 heaps of lime-coated curved tiles, 20 in. by 6 in., sixty of these 

 being superimposed in layers to form one heap, or collector. The 

 tiles were strung together through a hole at each end, and the 

 whole pile rested on two blocks of wood. These collectors were 

 immersed in depths varying from 2j to 3|- yards. Besides these, 

 eighty bundles of furze, as collectors, hung from a chain extended 

 from stakes in the centre of the lagoon, in a depth of 3 yards, and 



