BRITISH OYSTERS I OLD AND NEW. 
187 
to A.D. 1850, the loss caused by want of system in collecting, 
and by over-dredging, has led to the depletion and exhaustion 
of many of the most productive oyster-beds ; and the subsequent 
re-stocking of most of those on the south coast of Hants and 
Sussex, and elsewhere, has largely altered the original fauna by 
the introduction of other types. 
That the oyster beds were occasionally looked after in earlier 
times is shown by an entry in The Ledger Book of the Bailiffs 
at Newport, in the Isle of Wight, made in Oueen Elizabeth’s 
days, 1567 et seq. which orders that no person was to be allowed 
“ to dragge for oysters wyhn the haven off the toun,” without 
a licence from the bailiffs under penalty of 2/6, and they were 
to be sold in the market, “ a hundred told by syx skore for ijd. 
and no derer.” Great oysters gathered by hand for iiijd. Every 
boat owner had yearly “■ to gadre in the sea at large a bote full 
of Oystrys called ffoye, and put the said ffoye yn the haven off 
the Toun in the sight of the bayllyfs or their Sergeauntes,” under 
penalty of 3/6. 1 
On the west coast of Scotland, Professors Kerr and Gregory, 
of Glasgow University, tell me that I must not depend upon the 
purity of descent of the more receipt shells. Yet this locality 
was once rich. Costa (The British Conchology, 1778, p. 161) 
says : “ The bays of W. Scotland afford great plenty. In the 
Isle of Wacksay growing so big that they must be cut into four 
pieces to be eaten.” Dr. Wallace in his book on the Orkneys, 
p. 42, also says that the largest oysters he had ever seen are got 
in some places near the Orkneys, requiring the same treatment. 
Loch Fyne, Oban, and Luce Bay to this day yield a few native 
shells of lai^ge size, as does Colintraive in the Kyles of Bute ; 
but with the exception of Loch Ryan and Loch Tarbert, where 
they are commercially cultivated, there is no oyster-fishing now 
carried on. 
At one time the oyster beds in the Firth of Forth extended 
for 20 miles, from Mercera to Cockenzie. Dr. Wemyss Fulton, 
in his report on the past and present condition of the oyster 
beds in the Firth, 1895, says that in 1865 the Newhaven fisher¬ 
men took millions of oysters from the Firth, but by 1882 the 
supply had so greatly fallen off that dredging was actually given 
up. They have now become so scarce that I have had much 
; Antiquary, vol. 48, p. 81, 1912, 
