Oyster Culture in England. 193 
but sluices have been provided in the railway embankment 
for necessary admission and discharge of water. These 
beds are, however, incomplete. At the opposite extremity of 
Hayling Island, at the entrance of Chichester harbour, the 
company have made their first great experiment in oyster 
culture and their success so far has been most startling, the 
supply of spat in their breeding lake having proved almost 
unlimited, and this too at a time when there is a universal 
failure of spat at Whitstable, Herne Bay, Poole, and other 
places onthe English coast. The entire area of the ponds, 
or parcs, with which the company have made their first ex- 
periment does not exceed three and a half acres in extent, 
but on this the systems pursued at Lake Fusaro, in Italy, 
and Ile de Ré, in France, have been tried with the great 
success we have stated, and have also been attended by 
some very curious particulars. The plan of operations 
followed by the company’s manager was the formation of 
two parcs, one on the Italian, and the other on the French 
plan, connecting both by a gutway for the overflow of water 
from one to the other, the water finding admittances at 
spring tides from the entrance to Chichester harbour 
through a sluice in an artificial wall into the Lake Fusaro 
bed, thence overflowing through the gutway to the Ile de 
Ré beds or parcs, and overflowing thence to the harbour by 
another properly constructed outlet in the outer walls. 
Near the end of the intermediate gutway, and close to the Ile 
de Re beds, a pump worked by wind sails throws a portion 
of the water running from the Fusaro bed into a large slate 
tank, which may be utilized as a lobster feeding tank if re- 
quisite, the water flowing thence through slate hatching 
beds in a fish house, and finally escaping, in common with 
the rest, from the gutway into the Ile de Ré beds. Now 
the distinction between the two systems of Lake Fusaro 
and Ile de Ré, as carried out by the South of England 
Oyster Company at Hayling, is simply this :—1. The lake 
Fusaro bed is one sheet of water, which is,as a general rule 
still water ; the outer waters of the Channel only finding 
admittance during spring tides. 2. The old oysters in- 
tended for spatting are laid down on shingle, with closely- 
wattled hurdles suspended over them, attached to stakes, 
and lying parallel with the bed of the lake. The hurdles 
are the “ collectors” of the spat. 
The Isle de Re beds are one sheet of water like that of 
Fusaro farce, and are laid entirely with shingle, but the 
water is constantly running through them, gently, yet 
