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founds.’ Whitstable lies in a sandy bay, formed by a small branch 
01 the Medway, which separates the Isle of Sheppey from the main- 
land. Throughout this bay, from the town of Whitstable at its eastern 
6x tremity to the old town of Faversham, which lies several miles 
inland, the whole of the estuary is occupied by oyster farms, on which 
the maritime population, to the extent of three thousand people and 
u Pwards, is occupied ; the sum paid for labour by the various com- 
mies being set down at £100,000 per annum, besides the employ- 
ment given at Whitstable in building and repairing boats, dredges, 
a ml other requisites for the oyster-fishing. The business of the 
V;l rious companies is to feed oysters for the London and other markets, 
to protect the spawn or floatsome, as the dredgers call it, which is 
fitted on their own beds, and to furnish, by purchase or otherwise, 
We new brood necessary to supply the beds which have been taken 
Vl P P°r consumption.” 
We have hinted above that in oyster, as in other fisheries, a wasteful 
spirit of extravagance has hitherto prevailed. It appears, however, 
Wat no rule can be laid down even as to the particular year in which 
We oysters will spawn, much less where it will be carried to , for, 
though the artificial contrivances adopted by Sergius Orata for saving 
We spavyo are perfectly well known to the parties interested here, they 
W not hitherto been imitated ; the practice of the companies and 
PWvate owners of oyster-layers being to purchase their young brood 
lr °m the dredgers and others who fish along the public foreshore and 
°Pen grounds on the Kent and Essex coasts, and even as far north as 
We Frith of Forth. The little bay of Pont, for instance, on the Essex 
which is an open piece of water sixteen miles long and three 
. r °ad, free to all, and which formerly yielded considerable supplies to 
Wngsgato, now gives employment to a hundred and fifty boats, each 
V>1 W crews of three or four men, who are wholly employed in obtaining 
W'Uig brood— that is, oysters from eighteen months to two years old, 
'Wich they sell to the oyster farmers. The result is, that the oyster 
arEas have become a vast monopoly. By tacit consent they agree to 
ee ^ the market at some eight pounds sterling per bushel ; they pay the 
ledger one-fourth of that sum ; and as the common fishing grounds are 
,ls rendered mere nurseries of young brood, the lover of the bivalve 
llulH P reconcile himself to pay a monopoly price lor the precious morsel. 
Ibe system pursued at Whitstable, and other oyster-parks in the 
