MAEINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT POET EEIN. 41 



suspicion of sewage contamination from the beds and 

 layings from which oysters are supplied to the market. 

 This could obviously be effected in one of two ways, 

 either (1) by restrictive legislation and the licensing 

 of beds only after due inspection by the officials of a 

 Government department, or (2) by the formation of 

 an association amongst the oyster-growers and 

 dealers themselves, which should provide for the due 

 periodic examination of the grounds, stores and stock, 

 by independent properly-qualified inspectors. Scien- 

 tific assistance and advice given by such independent 

 inspectors would go far to improve the condition of 

 the oyster beds and layings, to re-assure the public, 

 and to elevate the oyster industry to the important 

 position which it deserves to occupy. 



" (b) Oysters imported from abroad (Holland, 

 France, or America) should be consigned to a member 

 of the ' Oyster Association,' who should be compelled 

 by the regulations to have his foreign oysters as 

 carefully inspected and certificated as those from his 

 home layings. A large proportion of the imported 

 oysters are, however, deposited in our waters for such 

 a period before going to market that the fact of their 

 having originally come from abroad may be ignored. 

 If this period of quarantine were imposed upon all 

 foreign oysters a great part of the difficulty as to 

 inspection and certification would be removed. 



" (c) The grounds from which mussels, cockles and 

 periwinkles are gathered should be periodically 

 examined by scientific inspectors in the same manner 

 as the oyster beds. The duty of providing for this 

 inspection might well, we should suggest, be assumed 

 by the various Sea-Fisheries Committees around the 

 coast." 



