184 
Part III. — Ifinth Annual Beport 
III.— ON THE SUITABILITY OF SCOTTISH WATERS FOR 
OYSTER CULTURE. By J. H. Fullarton, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S.E. 
WEST COAST LOCHS. 
1. Introductory. 
The subject of oyster culture has been engaging the attention of 
the fishery authorities of various nations, and in European countries, 
France and Holland, culture has got beyond the experimental stage, and 
is now established, both from a scientific and financial point of view, 
on a firm basis. In a previous report to the Board,* I dealt with 
oyster culture in France and Holland, and have shown how measures were 
adopted to arrest the decline of the oyster fishery, how artificial culture 
was promoted on a large scale to augment the stock on the depleted 
oyster grounds, and how thereby the revenues of those Governments and 
the earnings of the people were immensely increased. In Scotland it can 
hardly be said that the oyster industry exists. If it does exist at all, it 
is only in the earliest initiatory stage. It seems as if it were merely a 
groping after oyster culture, and that, too, on a minimum scale. Oyster 
culture, so far at least as our country is concerned, is in the future, but 
tokens of encouragement are not awanting to the ostreiculturist in our 
northern country. While we cannot boast of the high temperature during 
the wnvm summer months which is exhibited in such an oyster-producing 
basin as the Bay of Arcachon, or even in the shallow East Schelde, nor 
predict such a vigorous production of spat, yet the equable temperature 
of our western waters, and the production of abundant food forms, are 
factors which will tell in the attempt to grow and fatten, if not to breed, 
young oysters. 
In a paper on the ' Oyster Fishery of Scotland,'! I have compared the 
past condition of our Scottish oyster fishery, especially at the end of last 
century, as narrated in Sir J. Sinclair's statistical account, with the 
present state of the oystery fishery, in so far as that can be learned from 
the statistics of the oyster fisheries. In my paper it is shown that at 
various points immense quantities of oysters could be obtained a century 
ago where now it is with difficulty that a dozen can be fished, and that 
while oysters could be then bought for 4d., 5d., 6d., and 7d. per hundred, 
they now cost 2d. or 3d. each. The story of the Scottish oyster-beds 
is one showing a lamentable want of foresight on the part of a com- 
paratively provident people. The beds have been depleted and destroyed 
for the sake of immediate gain, and with a reckless disregard of the 
future of the oyster fishery of our country. 
With a view of ascertaining the present condition of some of the lochs 
of the west of Scotland, and their suitability for oyster culture, I was 
directed by the Board last summer (in accordance with the Scheme 
of Scientific Investigations) to visit the chief inlets of the southern 
half of the West Coast, and was conveyed to these by the Board's fishery 
steamer 'Garland,' w^hich is admirably fitted for the purpose of navi- 
gating these narrow waters ; and I have to thank Captain Simpson and 
* Seventh Annual Report of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
t Transactions of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow, Sess. 1890-91. 
