In 1874 the free fishers and tire public of Herne bar complained that the oyster com pany' in that locality, above edverted to, had not fulfilled tire required conditions. The company, on the other hand, declared that they had spent £100,000 in ten years. and were fairly attending to their engagement.. The board of trade thereupon sent down Mr. Spencer Walpole, an inspector of fisheries, to hold a court of inquiry at Herne bay. He decided on a compromise, by which a certain portion of the ground was to be rel ransferred to the public or free fishers; the remainder being left in the possession of the company, who would hold the exclusive right of fishing thereon as as they con tinued to maintain and foster the beds.—It is gratifying to find that oyster-culture is receiving much attention in An-tralia. Oyster-farms were established both in New South Wales and in Victoria in 1872.
Oysters live equally well in situation; where they are constantly under, water, and in those which are left dry by tire retiring title. In tire latter kind of situations they instinctively keep their valves closed when the water deserts them. It is in such situa tions that oyster-culture can be most easily and profitably carried on. Our space will not admit of details, which we would gladly give. Various methods are adopted of pre paring the artificial oyster-bed by providing suitable solid objects for the oysters to attach themselves to. Stones arc piled together, and in such a way that there are many open spaces among them; stakes are driveh into the mud or sand; bundles of small sticks are fastened to stones or stakes; floors of planks are formed, at a little height above the bottom, with alleys between them, the under surface of the planks being roughened by the adze; and tiles arc arranged in various ways, so as to torn to account the whole space at the disposal of the oyster-cultivator as high as the ordinary tides reach. The method must be varied in accordance with the situation and the probable violence of winds and waves; but sheltered situations are best in all respects; and experience in France seems to prove that tiles covered with cement are preferable to everything that has yet been tried. as convenient for the cultivator, presenting a surface to which oysters readily attach themselves, and from which they can easily be removed, whilst the larger sea weeds do not grow on it so readily as on stones or wood. By the use of tiles covered with cement the cultivator is also able easily to remove young oysters from breeding-grounds to feeding-grounds; the best breeding-grounds being by no means those in which the oyster most rapidly attains its greatest'stze and that greenish tinge which Parisian epicures so much desire to see, and which is owing to the abundant confervie and green monads of quiet muddy waters.—It has been long known that the oysters of particular localities
are finer than those produced elsewhere. Nowhere, perhaps, arc finer oysters produced than on some parts of the British coasts. Those of Rutupicew, now Richborough, in Kent, were highly esteemed by the Romans, whose epicurism in oysters exceeded that of modern nations.
Of the culinary uses of oysters it is unnecessary to say anything. Raw oysters, how ever, are generally believed to be more nutritious and mere easily digested, as to many they are more delicious, than oysters cooked in any way ; and it does not appear that any such evil consequences ever ensue from eating them as are known to ensue front eating other kinds of uncooked food. Probably no parasite capabie oi developing into any form injurious to the human being exists in the oyster.
The genus ost•ea gives its name in some zoological systems to a family—ostreada. The fossil species are more numerous than the recent.
The name oyster is popularly extended to many mollusks not included among the ostreadce, as the pearl-oyster (q.v.).
Oysters raised in artificial beds are called "natives," and are considered very superior to those which are dredged from the natural beds; although to these last the name of "native" would seem more appropriate than to the other. Some years ago it was esti mated that 500,000,000 oysters were consumed annually in London alone, at a cost of £100,000; but the supply has since lessened, and the price per 100 greatly increased. A large trade in oysters has sprung up in the United States; that of New York alone being estimated at $25,000,000 annually.
Fossil Oysters.—A single species occurs in the carboniferous limestone, and as we rise in the crust of the earth the genus becomes more and more common, no less than 200 species have been recorded, many of them scarcely distinguishable from the living species. The subgenus gryphcea was a free shell, with a large thick left valve and small concave right valve. Thirty species have been found in beds of the oolite and chalk periods. In the same beds there occurs another form of ostrca with subspiral reversed untbones, to which the subgenerie name exogyra has been given. Forty species of this form have been described.