SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 133 



between tide-marks. Many were attached to stones. It 

 is consequently a natural oyster-bed, but it is evident 

 from the condition of the specimens examined that there 

 is not sufficient food on the ground or in the water to 

 constitute the locality a good fattening area. The bodies 

 of the oysters were found to be very thin and in poor 

 condition generally. 



The bed is entirely covered at each tide, and only ebbs 

 completely dry at low water of an eighteen-foot tide with 

 favourable weather. The bottom is hard, being composed 

 of gravel and shells, with some fine mud between. 

 Samples from the ground and from the water showed that 

 diatoms and other minute forms of life which are so 

 necessary in the case of a flourishing oyster fishery were 

 so few as to be almost absent. It is quite possible that 

 during summer, at the breeding season, more microscopic 

 food may be present- — perhaps due in part to the river, 

 and it is probable that the bed in favourable seasons 

 forms a good enough spatting ground ; but all the 

 evidence before us shows that it is not a favourable 

 locality for the rearing and fattening of oysters. Pro- 

 bably the best plan would be to use it as a place for the 

 production of spat, from which a certain proportion of the 

 young oysters should be transferred to other localities 

 where they can be more satisfactorily nourished. I think 

 it worth while to try whether it would not be possible 

 by the judicious placing of tiles and other collectors, 

 and by certain obstructions in the water channels over 

 the bed, to largely increase the deposit of spat ; and I 

 should recommend that some of the half -grown oysters 

 be removed to certain grounds in the neighbourhood of 

 Piel, on the south and south-east sides of Foulney Island, 

 which we know to be richly supplied with diatoms and the 

 other necessary food, in order that their growth may be 



