148 
they have taken off on the oysters. No account has been 
taken of the number of mature or young oysters removed by 
the tongers, and the estimates are based upon observations 
made at the commencement of the fishing season, when the 
prices being low, a smaller number of dredgers would be at 
work ; therefore, there is every reason to believe that the es- 
timate of both classes of oysters is under, rather than above, 
the real number removed. We have then, aside from the rav- 
ages of the drills, a yearly destruction of over 64,000,000 
young, and the removal of 184,600,000 mature spawning oys- 
ters to account for the deterioration of the beds. Whether 
this extensive fishing is beyond the capacity of the beds or 
not cannot be accurately stated; the only information on the 
subject obtainable being the statements of the oyster- men, that 
the beds are deteriorating from that cause. But an estimation 
of the effect of excessive fishing may be' formed by exam- 
ining its results upon such beds in England and France as- 
have records upon the subject. The most instructive of these 
are the records of the production of the beds of Cancale Bay, 
on the northwest coast of France, which extend over a pe- 
riod of sixty-eight years — from 1800 to 1868. The beds in 
thd Bay comprise an area of about 150 acres, and from 1800 
to 1816 produced from 400,000 to 2,400,000 a year. This,, 
however, was the period of the Napoleonic wars, and the fish- 
ing was much disturbed by the presence of the English cruis- 
ers. During this time the beds became so thickly stocked 
that the oysters were in some places a yard thick. After the 
close of the war the fishing improved and the oysters were 
removed in larger and increasing numbers until 1843. From 
1823 to 1848 it is supposed that the dredgers were living upon 
the oysters accumulated during the period of enforced rest, 
from 1800 to 1816. In 1817 the number of oysters produced 
was 5,600,000, and until 1843 there was a constant increase, 
the number taken in the latter year being 70,000,000. In 
1848 it was 60,000,000 ; thenceforward there was a constant 
decrease. From 1850 to 1856 the decrease was from 50,000,- 
000 to 18,000,000, supposed to be the effect of over-dredging. 
From 1859 to 1868 the decrease was from 16,000,000 to 1,079,- 
