i8 8 
THE ESSEX NATURALIST. 
trouble in getting a few genuine specimens (Plate xiii., fig. 6), 
through the Scottish Fishery Board. The Rev. F. D. Smith, 
the well known Scottish archaeologist, told me that he had 
tried in vain to get me some living examples from the Newhaven 
fishermen. In the Shetlands the beds in the South Voe at Burra, 
extending for about a mile outwards on a soft and muddy bottom, 
were so cleanly scraped between i860 and 1880, that the supply 
exceeded the demand to such an extent that the surplus shells 
were taken to sea again, and thrown overboard without any 
discrimination, and ultimately perished. Attempts have been 
made to replenish the beds, but the only suitable form, the rock 
-oyster natural to Shetland, is difficult to cultivate, as it does not 
readily accommodate itself to change, and is very sensitive to 
atmospheric conditions (Anderson Smith, Fishing News, 1913). 
In Ireland, the coast from Carlingford round to Cork, and to 
Tralee, was once celebrated for its abundant supplies, but these 
are no longer obtainable, except a few preserved in private oyster 
grounds, as at Coolmore, Cork, the beds having been nearly 
all worked out by 1876, and the fisheries having consequently 
fallen off past recovery. Da Costa (op. cit.) refers to the 
enormous quantities of this shell in Ireland, and notes 
especially a bed of rock oysters as large as horseshoes at Howth 
and others at Malahide (where a bed of dead shells occurs on the 
shore), and at Irelands Eye “ green-finned and of a delicate 
flavour." 
Forbes and Hanley, in the British Mollusca, vol. ii., 1853, 
note various localities in the Channel Islands, Ireland, and the 
West Coast as being very productive, which in less than 25 
years became practically exhausted. Mr. Sinel, of Jersey, writes 
me that it is now difficult to get any of the uncultivated forms, 
but sent me some deep-water shells, after much trouble in getting 
them. I found the same trouble in the Isle of Man, where they 
formerly abounded in 15-25 fathoms of water, between Laxey 
and Ramsey. 
Dr. Murie, reporting on Sea Fisheries of the Thames Haven, 
1903, notices a few patches remaining at the Point by the mouth 
-of the Blackwater River, and the Kentish Flats as still produc¬ 
tive. From off Dovercourt I have some isolated shells of the 
original stock, obtained at very low tides. 
The shell is roundly ovate or subtrigonal, mostly well ribbed 
