xxviii 
Eighth Annual Report of the 
mentions the case of a merchant at Leith who for ten years paid 
£2500 sterling per annum for oysters (vol. xvii. page 69). But 
already the destructive effects of over fishing were beginning to be 
felt. At Cramond the fishermen sold their oysters to the Dutch 
for 4s. the herring barrel, with the result that instead of making 
80s. a day as they used to do, less than half the usual number of 
boats were able to find profitable employment, and that only occa- 
sionally. Burntisland also had its oyster beds — belonging partly 
to the burgh and partly to the Earl of Morton. In the parish of 
Tranent, ',4000 to 7000 a day was some years previously a good 
fishing for a single boat, although a boat would sometimes drag 
9000 in a day, which at 5d., 6d., 7d. a hundred, afforded a good 
income to a crew of five. But ' latterly (says Sir John), oysters 
' have become scarce, and at present 700 or 800 are reckoned a good 
' day's work.' The parish of Prestoupans appears to have lived off 
its oysters, the oyster boats belonging to the parish being 10 in 
number, each requiring a crew of five men ; and three or four times 
in a season a boat sailed to Newcastle, with a cargo of oysters 
to the number of 30,000, sometimes 40,000. Amtiiig the enemies 
of the oyster found among the oyster beds, Sir John Sinclair 
mentions ' buckies, clams, sea-urchins, star-fish, and corse-fish ' — 
and to these, along with over-fishing and the throwing of refuse 
into the river, we may attribute Ihe decay of the once famous 
oyster beds of the Firth of Forth. 
Having regard to the above facts in the history of this industry, 
and the progressive and almost continuous decline in the supply of 
oysters, both in quantity and value during the last few years, we 
do not see how its complete extinction can be averted unless some 
decided steps for its revival are immediately taken. Without this, 
oysters are likely to become scarcer and dearer ; and this is not to 
be wondered at. It is only another proof that the country which 
Protection and trusts exclusively to i fcs natural oyster beds, without making proper 
necessary 11 provision for their protection and systematic culture, is doing itself 
Experience a g l>fiv e injury. The experience of almost every other country has 
of other been the same. The districts around the Isle d'Oleron, on the west 
coast of France, which yielded 10,000,000 oysters in 1853-54, and 
15,000,000 in 1854-55, yielded less than haif a million in 1863-64; 
and the produce of the rich beds of the Bay of Cancale, on the 
coast of Normandy, graduallv fell from 71,000,000 of oysters in 
1847 to 1,000,000 in 1865-66. 
In 1851, under the direction of Professor Coste, the distinguished 
embryologist of the College de France, the French Government 
introduced the system of strewing oyster shells on the sea-bottom, 
as cultch, to which the fry diffused throughout the water could 
attach themselves. In later years artificial oyster culture was 
further developed both in France aud Holland on a very extensive 
Supply in- scale with astonishing success. In particular, the supply was 
Fmnce and increased manyfold at Arcachon, the number of oysters exported 
Holland. froin that basin alone having risen from 4,897,500 in 1871 to 
195,477,357 in 1880. 
America. In America, although in earlier times oysters were found in large 
Natural Beds quantities on the coast of New England, the natural growth beds 
fished out. north of the Chesapeake are now said to be practically worthless 
Countries 
France. 
