of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
193 
further down many two to three year old oysters were being lifted opposite 
Eosebank and towards Lochnoll Point. These, as Sir W. Wallace's 
manager informed me, are transferred to the Wig side. The transference 
of oysters in this way follows the same laws as are observed in mussel 
culture, where the spat, which is carried seawards and settles there, is 
brought back to the better feeding ground, which is less salt and warmer. 
It would conduce to the improvement of the Loch Ryan oyster-bed if 
the cultivator, after the spat has been liberated from the maternal house, 
and while it is spending a pelagic existence, would supply natural col- 
lectors in the form of dry and clean cockle and other shells. Much of the 
oyster progeny is lost because of the failure of the young to find a resting- 
place to which they can solidly cement themselves. All cultivators have 
recognised this fact, and in addition to the tiles and other artificial col- 
lectors which are placed in the water, the French Government devotes a 
sum of money for providing empty and clean shells to act as natural spat 
collectors. A similar procedure by the cultivators of Scottish oyster-beds 
would be attended by beneficial results, but care would require to be 
exercised, so that the deposition of the shells coincided as closely as 
possible with the period when the earlier spat was ready to be affixed. 
Otherwise a too early placing of the collectors in the water would lead to 
the settling upon them of the young of barnacles, polyzoa, and other 
animal larvae, and to a development on them of algae. As to the particular 
kinds of shells which should be selected, any clean shells would suit. At 
Arcachon the shells made use of are largely cockle and periwinkle shells, 
but provided they are clean and free from any decaying organic matter, 
any gasteropod or bivalve shells would do equally well. 
Complaints are made as to the want of protection at Loch Ryan, and 
to thefts of oysters from the loch. In France, while watching is under- 
taken by the Government officials, these tend chiefly the public beds 
while theostreiculturists employ the ordinary fishermen, who work the beds, 
to watch them during the night, when thefts are most likely to be com- 
mitted. Co-operation on the part of the coastguard and police on the 
one side, and of the servants of the proprietor on the other, would retard 
robberies. Moreover, the more valuable a property is, the less is the pro- 
portionate expense of effective watching, especially in the case of an 
oyster-bed. If some millions of oysters were imported yearly into Loch 
Ryan to be fattened for the market — and indications in favour of such a 
policy are many — effective watching would not add much to the ordinary 
expense of working. This is found to be the case in France, where two 
workers take one week on board one of the watch boats during the night, 
and one or more weeks ashore. In this way the men can do tidal work 
during the day, and in alternate weeks take guard duty at ni<;;ht. 
In West Loch Tarbert oyster culture on a small scale has been com- 
menced. Messrs Hay & Co., whose Fishery Order dates from 1888, farm 
the portion of this loch between Carrick Point to the east of Escart Bay 
and Kilnacraig. The real business is that of oyster fattening, and as 
they are removed and sent to the market they are replaced by native spat, 
taken from the lower reaches of the loch and elsewhere. They have about 
a million of oysterd in stock, and they have constructed a small pond at 
Rhu, in which they have something like four thousand native oysters. 
In this pond lh(iy have laid down a number of round tiles, which are not, 
however, covered with mortar. These tiles are similar to those from 
which the Morhihan ostreiculturists take the haitres d tesxon ; the reason 
alleged for the non-coating of the tiles with mortar, according to the 
Morbihan oyster farmers, being that the oysters are less liable to bo sue- 
fully attacked by crabs. In this pond, as I liave noticed, the temperature 
was 16°-75 C. on Uth July, being fully 2° to 3° C. higher than the sur- 
