CHAPTER VIII.

THE NATURAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE OYSTER.

Proper Time for Oyster-Fishing to Begin—Description of the

Oyster—Controversies about its Natural History—Spatting of the

Oyster—Growth of the Oyster—Quantity of Spawn Emitted by the

Oyster—Social History of the Oyster—Great Men who were Fond of

Oysters—Oyster-Breeding in France—Lake Fusaro—Beef’s Discovery

of Artificial Culture—Oyster-Farming in the Bay of Biscay—The

Celebrated Green Oysters—Marennes—Dr. Kemmerer’s Plan—Lessons

to be gleaned from the French Pisciculturists—How to Manage

an Oyster-Farm—Whitstable—Cultivation of Natives—The Colne

Oyster-Trade—Scottish Oysters—The Pandores—Extent of Oyster-Ground in

the Firth of Forth—Dredging—Extent of American Oyster-Beds.

August is a month that has red-letter days for those who delight in the

luxuries of eating. Do we not in that month begin the carnival of “St.

Grouse?” and do we not hear in the bye-streets of London the pleasant

sounds of “Please to remember the Grotto?” It is the month that ushers

in the ever-welcome oyster. In nearly every small street and alley

early in August may be heard resounding the words “Only once a year!”

and groups of merry children building their grottoes remind us that the

long days are passing, that autumn is at hand, and that in a few brief

months the Christmas barrel of oysters will be travelling “inland”

on the rapid railway, passing in its course the friendly and welcome

exchange hamper of country produce, containing the choice pheasant and

the plump turkey. But September, and not August, is the right month for

the inauguration of the oyster season, although, by ancient custom,

perhaps originating in the impatience of our _gourmets_, the proper

date has been anticipated, and oyster-eating has become general even so

early as the 5th of August. It is wrong, however, to partake of oysters

thus early—as wrong as it was three centuries ago to eat them on St.

James’s day, although the superstition of the period gave weight to

the act; as in those days there existed a proverb that persons who ate

oysters on the 25th of July would have plenty of money all the rest of

the year.

In those remote times the knowledge of sea-produce was exceedingly

limited, as people could only guess the proper season for indulging

in what we call “shell-fish;” and although it is not easy, from the

difficulty of obtaining access to sea animals, to obtain accurate

information about their growth and habits, yet it is pleasing to think

that we know a great deal more of those interesting creatures than

our forefathers ever did. Our worthy ancestors, for instance, were

quite content to swallow their oysters without inquiring very minutely

about how they were bred; the oyster-shell was opened simply that

its contents might be devoured along with the necessary quantity of

bread and butter and brown stout. They did not think of the delicacy

as a subject of natural history—with them it was simply a delicious

condiment. But in the present day that style of eating has been

altogether reformed: people like to know what they eat; and from the

investigations of M. Coste and other naturalists we now know as much

about the oyster, and the mollusca in general, as we do about the

Crustacea.

Generally speaking, many curious opinions have been held about

shell-fish. At one time they were thought to be only masses of oily or

other matter scarcely alive and insensible to pain. Who could suppose,

it was asked, that a portion of blubber like the oyster, that could

only have been first eaten by some very courageous individual, could

have any feeling? But we know better now, and although the organisation

of the mollusca is not of a high order, it is perfect of its kind,

and has within it indications of organs that in beings of a higher

type serve a loftier purpose, and point out the beginnings of nature,

showing how she works her way from the simplest imaginings of animal

life to the complex human machine. The oyster has no doubt in its

degree its joys and sorrows, and throbs with life and pleasure, as

animals do that have a higher organic structure.

Zoologically the oyster is known as _Ostræa edulis_. Its outward

appearance is familiar to even very landward people, and no human

engineer could have invented so admirable a home for the pulpy and

headless mass of jelly that is contained within the rough-looking

shell. The oyster is a curiously-constructed animal; but I fear that,

comparatively speaking, very few of my readers have ever seen a perfect

one, as oysters are very much mutilated, being generally deprived of

their beards before they are sent to table, and otherwise hurt, both

accidentally in the opening and by use and wont, as in the case of the

beard. Its mouth—it has no jaws or teeth—is a kind of trunk or snout,

with four lips, and leafy coverings or gills are spread over the body

to act as lungs, and keep from the action of the water the air which

the animal requires for its existence. This covering is divided into

two lobes with ciliated edges. Four leaves or membranous plates act

as capillary funnels, open at the farthest extremities. Behind the

gills there is a large whitish fatty part enclosing the stomach and

intestines. The vessels of circulation play into muscular cavities,

which act the part of the heart. The stomach is situated near the

mouth. The oyster has no feet, but can move by opening and closing

its shell, and it secures food by means of its beard, which acts as a

kind of rake. In fact the internal structure of the oyster, while it

is excellently adapted to that animal’s mode of life, is exceedingly

simple.

It is not my purpose in the present work to enter into the minutiæ of

oyster life. Indeed, there have been so many controversies about the

natural history of this animal as to render it impossible to narrate

in the brief space I can devote to it a tenth part of what has been

written or spoken about the life and habits of the “breedy creature.”

Every stage of its growth has been made the stand-point for a wrangle

of some kind. As an example of the keenness with which each stage of

oyster life is now being discussed, I may mention that in the summer

of 1864 a most amusing squabble broke out in the pages of the _Field_

newspaper on an immaterial point of oyster life, which is worth noting

here as an example of what can be said on either side of a question.

The controversy hinged upon whether an oyster while on the bed lay

on the flat or convex side. Mr. Frank Buckland, who originated the

dispute, maintained that the right, proper, and natural position of

the oyster, when at the bottom of the sea, is with the flat shell

downwards. Mr. James Lowe, a gentleman who takes great interest in

pisciculture, and who has explored the oyster-beds of France, held the

opinion that the oyster is never in its proper position except when the

flat shell is uppermost. Of course, the natural position of the oyster

is of no practical importance whatever; and I know, from personal

observation of the beds at Newhaven and Cockenzie, that oysters lie

both ways,—indeed, with a dozen or two of dredges tearing over the beds

it is impossible but that they must lie quite higgledy-piggledy, so to

speak. A great deal that is incidentally interesting was brought up in

the discussion to which I have been referring. There have been several

other disputes about points in the natural history of the oysters—one

in particular as to whether that animal is provided with organs of

vision. Various opinions have been enunciated as to whether an oyster

has eyes, and one author asserts that it has so many as twenty-four,

which again is denied, and the assertion made that the so-called

eyes projecting from the border of the mantle have no optical power

whatever; but be that as it may, I have no doubt whatever that the

oyster has a power of knowing the light from the dark.

Without wishing to dogmatise on any point of oyster life, I think I can

bring before my readers in a brief way a few interesting facts in the

natural history of the edible oyster.

As is well known, there is a period every year during which the oyster

is not fished; and the reason why our English oyster-beds have not been

ruined or exhausted by overfishing arises, among other causes, from

this fact of there being a definite close-time assigned to the breeding

of the mollusc. It would be well if the larger varieties of sea produce

were equally protected; for it is sickening to observe the countless

numbers of unseasonable fish that are from time to time brought to

Billingsgate and other markets, and greedily purchased. The fact that

oysters are supplied only during certain months in the year, and that

the public have a general corresponding notion that they are totally

unfit for wholesome eating during May, June, July, and August (those

four wretched months which have not the letter “r” in their names), has

been greatly in their favour. Had there been no period of rest, it is

almost quite certain that oysters would long ago—I allude to the days

when there was no system of cultivation—have become extinct, so great

is the demand for this dainty mollusc.

Oysters begin to sicken about the end of April, so that it is well that

their grand rest commences in May. The shedding of the spawn continues

during the whole of the hot months—not but that during that period

there may be found supplies of healthy oysters, but, as a general rule,

it is better that there should be a total cessation of the trade during

the summer season, because were the beds disturbed by a search for the

healthy oysters the spawn would be scattered and destroyed.

Oysters do not leave their ova, like many other marine creatures, but

incubate them in the folds of their mantle, and among the laminæ of

their lungs. There the ova remain surrounded by mucous matter, which is

necessary to their development, and within which they pass through the

embryo state. The mass of ova, or “spat” as it is familiarly called,

undergoes various changes in its colour, meanwhile losing its fluidity.

This state indicates the near termination of the development and the

sending forth of the embryo to an independent existence, for by this

time the young oysters can live without the protection of the maternal

organs. An eminent French pisciculturist says that the animated matter

escaping from the adults on breeding-banks is like a thick mist being

dispersed by the winds—the _spat_ is so scattered by the waves that

only an imperceptible portion remains near the parent stock. All

the rest is dissipated over the sea space; and if these myriads of

animalculæ, tossed by the waves, do not meet with solid bodies to which

they can attach themselves, their destruction is certain, for if they

do not fall victims to the larger animals which prey upon them, they

are unfortunate in not fixing upon the proper place for their thorough

development.

Thus we see that the spawn of the oyster is well matured before it

leaves the protection of the parental shell; and by the aid of the

microscope the young animal can be seen with its shell perfect and

its holding-on apparatus, which is also a kind of swimming-pad, ready

to clutch the first “coigne of vantage” that the current may carry it

against. My theory is, that the parent oyster goes on _brewing_ its

spawn for some time—I have seen it oozing from the same animal for some

days—and it is supposed that the spawn swims about with the current

for a short period before it falls, being in the meantime devoured by

countless sea animals of all kinds. The operation of nursing, brewing,

and exuding the spat from the parental shell will occupy a considerable

period—say from two to four weeks. It is quite certain that the

close-time for oysters is necessary and advantageous, for we seldom

find this mollusc, as we do the herring and other fish, full of eggs,

so that most of the operations connected with its reproduction go on

in the months during which there is no dredging. As I have indicated,

immense quantities of the spawn of oysters are annually devoured by

other molluscs, and by fish and crustaceans of various sizes; it is

well, therefore, that it is so bountifully supplied. On occasions of

visiting the beds I have seen the dredge covered with this spawn; and

no pen could number the thousands of millions of oysters thus prevented

from ripening into life. Economists ought to note this fact with

respect to fish generally, for the enormous destruction of spawn of all

kinds must exercise a very serious influence on our fish supplies. I

may also note that the state of the weather has a serious influence on

the spawn and on the adult oyster-power of spawning. A cold season is

very unfavourable, and a decidedly cold day will kill the spat.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

Some people have asserted that the oyster can reproduce its kind in

twenty weeks, and that in ten months it is full-grown. Both of these

assertions are pure nonsense. At the age of three months an oyster is

not much bigger than a pea; and the age at which reproduction begins

has never been accurately ascertained, but it is thought to be three

years. I give here one or two illustrations of oyster-growth in order

to show the ratio of increase. The smallest, about the dimensions of a

pin’s head, may be called a fortnight old. The next size represents

the oyster as it appears when three months old. The other sizes are

drawn at the ages of five, eight, and twelve months respectively.

Oysters are usually four years old before they are sent to the London

market. At the age of five years the oyster is, I think, in its prime;

and some of our most intelligent fishermen think its average duration

of life to be ten years.

[Illustration]

In these days of oyster-farming the time at which the oyster becomes

reproductive may be easily fixed, and it will no doubt be found to vary

in different localities. At some places it becomes saleable—chiefly,

however, for fattening—in the course of two years; at other places it

is three or four years before it becomes a saleable commodity; but on

the average it will be quite safe to assume that at four years the

oyster is both ripe for sale and able for the reproduction of its kind.

Let us hope that the breeders will take care to have at least one

brood from each batch before they offer any for sale. Oyster-farmers

should keep before them the folly of the salmon-fishers, who kill

their grilse—_i.e._ the virgin fish—before they have an opportunity of

perpetuating their race.

Another point on which naturalists differ is as to the quantity

of spawn from each oyster. Some enumerate the young by thousands,

others by millions. It is certain enough that the number of young is

prodigious—so great, in fact, as to prevent their all being contained

in the parent shell at one time; but I do not believe that an oyster

yields its young “in millions”—perhaps half a million is on the average

the amount of spat which each oyster can “brew” in one season. I

have examined oyster-spawn (taken direct from the oyster) by means

of a powerful microscope, and find it to be a liquid of some little

consistency, in which the young oysters, like the points of a hair,

swim actively about, in great numbers, as many as a thousand having

been counted in a very minute globule of spat. The spawn, as found

floating on the water, is greenish in appearance, and each little

splash may be likened to an oyster nebula, which resolves itself, when

examined by a powerful glass, into a thousand distinct animals.

The oyster, it is now pretty well determined, is hermaphrodite, and

it is very prolific, as has been already observed, but the enormous

fecundity of the animal is largely detracted from by bad breeding

seasons; for, unless the spawning season be mild, soft, and warm,

there is usually a very partial fall of spat, and of course quite a

scarcity of brood; and even if one be the proprietor of a large bed of

oysters, there is no security for the spawn which is emitted from the

oysters on that bed falling upon it, or within the bounds of one’s own

property even; it is often enough the case that the spawn falls at a

considerable distance from the place where it has been emitted. Thus

the spawn from the Whitstable and Faversham Oyster Companies’ beds—and

these contain millions of oysters in various stages of progress—falls

usually on a large piece of ground between Whitstable and the Isle

of Thanet, formerly common property, but lately _given_ by Act of

Parliament to a company recently formed for the breeding of oysters.

The saving of the spawn cannot be effected unless it falls on proper

ground—_i.e._ ground with a shelly bottom is best, for the infant

animal is sure to perish if it fall among mud or upon sand; the infant

oyster must obtain a holding-on place as the first condition of its own

existence.

Oysters have not on the aggregate spawned extensively during late

years. The greatest fall of spawn ever known in England occurred in

1827, and it is thought by practical men, as well as naturalists, that

they do not spawn at all in cold seasons, and in Britain not always

in warm seasons; and Mr. Buckland, I believe, assumes that the more

favourable spawning on the French coast of the Bay of Biscay is caused

by the greater, because more direct, influence of the Gulf Stream on

the waters there than in the English Channel, but this idea is also

disputed. If the oyster does not spawn every year it would require

to emit an enormous quantity in those favourable years when it does

spawn, so as to keep up the supply. On being exuded from the parental

shell, the spawn of the oyster at once rises to the surface, where

its vitality is easily affected, and it is often killed in certain

places by snow-water or ice. A genial warmth of sunshine and water is

considered highly favourable to its proper development during the few

days it floats about on the surface. It is thought that not more than

one oyster out of each million arrives at maturity. It is curious to

note that some oysters have immense shells with very little “meat” in

them. I recently saw in a popular tavern (date Sept. 29, 1864), several

oysters much larger externally than crown-pieces with the “meat”

about the size of a sixpence: these were Firth of Forth oysters from

Cockenzie. It is not easy to determine from the external size of the

animal the amount of “meat” it will yield—apparently, “the bigger the

oyster the smaller the meat.” In the early part of the season we get

only the very small oysters in Edinburgh—the reason assigned being that

all the best dredgers are “away at the herring,” and that the persons

left behind at the oyster-beds are only able to skim them, so that,

for a period of about six weeks, we merely obtain the small fry that

are lying on the top. It is quite certain that as the season advances

the oysters obtained are larger and of more decided flavour. In the

“natives” obtained at Whitstable the shell and the meat are pretty much

in keeping as to size, and this is an advantage.

The Abbé Diquemarc, who has keenly observed the habits of the principal

mollusca, assures us that oysters, when free, are perfectly able to

transport themselves from one place to another, by simply causing the

sea-water to enter and emerge suddenly from between their valves; and

these they use with extreme rapidity and great force. By means of

the operation now described, the oyster is enabled to defend itself

from its enemies among the minor crustacea, particularly the small

crabs, which endeavour to enter the shell when it is half open. “Some

naturalists,” the Abbé says, “go the length of allowing the oyster

to have great foresight,” which he illustrates by an allusion to

the habits of those found at the seaside. “These oysters,” he says,

“exposed to the daily change of tides, appear to be aware that they are

likely to be exposed to dryness at certain recurring periods, and so

they preserve water in their shells to supply their wants when the tide

is at ebb. This peculiarity renders them more easy of transportation to

remote distances than those members of the family which are caught at a

considerable distance from the shore.”

But oysters have their social as well as their natural and economic

history. The name of the courageous individual who ate the first oyster

has not been recorded, but there is a legend concerning him to the

following effect:—Once upon a time—it must be a prodigiously long time

ago, however—a man of melancholy mood, who was walking by the shores

of a picturesque estuary, listening to the monotonous murmur of the

sad sea-waves, espied a very old and ugly oyster, all coated over with

parasites and sea-weeds. It was so unprepossessing that he kicked

it with his foot, and the animal, astonished at receiving such rude

treatment on its own domain, gaped wide with indignation. Seeing the

beautiful cream-coloured layers that shone within the shelly covering,

and fancying the interior of the shell itself to be beautiful, he

lifted up the aged “native” for further examination, inserting his

finger and thumb within the shells. The irate mollusc, thinking no

doubt that this was meant as a further insult, snapped his pearly

door close upon the finger of the intruder, causing him some little

pain. After releasing his wounded digit, the inquisitive gentleman very

naturally put it in his mouth. “Delightful!” exclaimed he, opening

wide his eyes. “What is this?” and again he sucked his thumb. Then the

great truth flashed upon him, that he had found out a new delight—had

in fact accidentally achieved the most important discovery ever made up

to that date! He proceeded at once to the verification of his thought.

Taking up a stone, he forced open the doors of the oyster, and gingerly

tried a piece of the mollusc itself. Delicious was the result; and so,

there and then, with no other condiment than the juice of the animal,

with no reaming brown stout or pale chablis to wash down the repast, no

nicely-cut, well-buttered brown bread, did that solitary anonymous man

inaugurate the oyster banquet. Another way of the story is that the man

who ate the first oyster was compelled to do so for a punishment:—

“The man had sure a palate covered o’er

With brass, or steel, that on the rocky shore

First broke the oozy oyster’s pearly coat,

And risk’d the living morsel down his throat.”

Ever since the apocryphal period of this legend, men have gone on

eating oysters. Poets, princes, pontiffs, orators, statesmen, and wits

have gluttonised over the oyster-bed. Oysters were at one time, it is

true, in danger of being forgotten. From the fourth century to about

the fifteenth they were not much in use; but from that date to the

present time the demand has never slackened. Going back to the times

which we now regard as classic, we are told—as I will by and by relate

in more detail when I come to describe the art of oyster-farming—that

we owe the original idea of pisciculture to a certain Sergius Orata,

who invented an oyster-pond in which to breed oysters, not for his

own table, but for profit. We have all read of the feasts and

fish-dinners of the classic Italians. These were on a scale, as has

been already indicated, far surpassing our modern banquets at Greenwich

and Blackwall, even though the charge for these be, as was recently

complained in the _Times_, two and three guineas for each person.

Talking of fish-dinners reminds me of a description I have read of a

dish produced in China containing juvenile crabs. On the cover being

removed the crablets jump out on the table and are greedily seized

and eaten by the guests who are assembled. The dish is filled with

vinegar, which imparts great liveliness to the young creatures. The

shell is soft and gelatinous, and the _morceau_ is highly palatable.

Lucullus had sea-water brought to his villa in canals from the coast

of Campania, in which he bred fish in such abundance for the use of

his guests that not less than £35,000 worth was sold at his death.

Vitellius ate oysters all day long, and some people insinuate that he

could eat as many as a thousand at one sitting—a happiness too great

for belief! Callisthenes, the philosopher of Olynthus, was also a

passionate oyster-eater, and so was Caligula, the Roman tyrant. The

wise Seneca dallied over his few hundreds every week, and the great

Cicero nourished his eloquence with the dainty. The Latin poets sang

the praises of the oyster, and the fast men of ancient Rome enjoyed

the poetry during their carouse, just as modern fellows, not at all

classic, enjoy a song over their oysters in the parlour of a London or

provincial tavern.

In all countries there are records of the excessive fondness of great

men for oysters. Cervantes was an oyster-lover, and he satirised

the oyster-dealers of Spain. Louis XI., careful lest scholarship

should become deficient in France, feasted the learned doctors of the

Sorbonne, once a year, on oysters; and another Louis invested his

cook with an order of nobility as a reward for his oyster-cookery.

Napoleon, also, was an oyster-lover; so was Rousseau; and Marshall

Turgot used to eat a hundred or two, just to whet his appetite for

breakfast. Invitations to a dish of oysters were common in the literary

and artistic circles of Paris at the latter end of last century. The

Encyclopedists were particularly fond of oysters. Helvetius, Diderot,

the Abbé Raynal, Voltaire, and others, were confirmed oyster-men.

Before the Revolution, the violent politicians were in the habit

of constantly frequenting the Parisian oyster-shops; and Danton,

Robespierre, and others, were fond of the oyster in their days of

innocence. The great Napoleon, on the eve of his battles, used to

partake of the bivalve; and Cambaceres was famous for his shell-fish

banquets. Even at this day the consumption of oysters in Paris is

enormous. According to recent statistics the quantity eaten there is

one million per day!

Among our British celebrities, Alexander Pope was an oyster-eater

of taste, and so was Dean Swift, who was fond of lobsters as well.

Thomson, of _The Seasons_, who knew all good things, knew how good a

thing an oyster was. The learned Dr. Richard Bentley could never pass

an oyster-shop without having a few; and there have been hundreds

of subsequent Englishmen who, without coming up to Bentley in other

respects, have resembled him in this. The Scottish philosophers, too,

of the last century—Hume, Dugald Stewart, Cullen, etc.—used frequently

to indulge in the “whiskered pandores” of their day and generation.

“Oyster-ploys,” as they were called, were frequently held in the

quaint and dingy taverns of the Old Town of Edinburgh. These Edinburgh

oyster-taverns of the olden time were usually situated underground, in

the cellar-floor; and, even in the course of the long winter evenings,

the carriages of the quality folks would be found rattling up, and

setting down fashionable ladies, to partake of oysters and porter,

plenteously but rudely served. What oysters have been to the intellect

of Edinburgh in later times, who needs to be told that has heard of

Christopher North and read the _Noctes Ambrosianæ_?

The Americans become still more social over their oysters than we do,

and their extensive seabord affords them a very large supply, although

I regret to learn that, in consequence of overfishing and of carrying

away the fish at improper seasons, the oyster-banks of that great

country are in danger of becoming exhausted. In City Island the whole

population participates in the oyster-trade, and there is an oyster-bed

in Long Island Sound which is 115 miles long.

The oyster can be cooked in many ways, but the pure animal is the best

of all, and gulping him up in his own juice is the best way to eat him.

The oyster, I maintain, may be eaten raw, day by day, every day of the

214 days that it is in season, and never do hurt. It never produces

indigestion—never does the flavour pall. The man who ends the day with

an oyster in his mouth rises with a clean tongue in the morning, and a

clear head as well.

The secret of there being only a holding-on place required for the

spat of the oyster to insure an immensely-increased supply having been

penetrated by the French people—and no doubt they are in some degree

indebted to our oyster-beds on the Colne and at Whitstable for their

idea—the plan of systematic oyster-culture was easy enough, as I will

immediately show. A few initiatory experiments, in fact, speedily

settled that oysters could be grown in any quantity. Strong pillars of

wood were driven into the mud and sand; arms were added; the whole was

interlaced with branches of trees, and various boughs besides were hung

over the beds on ropes and chains, whilst others were sunk in the water

and kept down by a weight. A few boat-loads of oysters being laid down,

the spat had no distance to travel in search of a home, but found a

resting-place almost at the moment of being exuded; and, as the fairy

legends say, “it grew and it grew,” till, in the fulness of time, it

became a marketable commodity.

But the history of this modern phase of oyster-farming, as practised

on the foreshores of France, is so interesting as to demand at my

hands a rather detailed notice, for it is one of the most noteworthy

circumstances connected with the revived art of fish-culture, that

it has resulted in placing upon the shores of France upwards of 7000

fish-farms for the cultivation of the oyster alone.

It is no exaggeration to say, that about fifteen years ago there was

scarcely an oyster of native growth in France; the beds—and I cite

the case of France as a warning to people at home, I mean as regards

our Scottish oyster-beds—had become so exhausted from overdredging as

to be unproductive, so far as their money value was concerned, and

to be totally unable to recover themselves so far as their power of

reproductiveness was at stake. And the people were consequently in

despair at the loss of this favourite adjunct of their banquets, and

had to resort to other countries for such small supplies as they could

obtain. As an illustration of the overdredging that had prevailed, it

may be stated that oyster-farms which formerly employed 1400 men, with

200 boats, and yielded an annual revenue of 400,000 francs, had become

so reduced as to require only 100 men and 20 boats. Places where at

one time there had been as many as fifteen oyster-banks, and great

prosperity among the fisher class, had become, at the period I allude

to, almost oysterless. St. Brieuc, Rochelle, Marennes, Rochefort, etc.,

had all suffered so much that those interested in the fisheries were

no longer able to stock the beds, thus proving that, notwithstanding

the great fecundity of these sea animals, it is quite possible to

overfish them, and thoroughly exhaust their reproductive power. It

was under these circumstances that M. Coste instituted that plan of

oyster-culture which has been so much noticed of late in the scientific

journals, and which appears to have been inspired by the plan of the

mussel-farms in the Bay of Aiguillon, and the oyster-parcs of Lake

Fusaro, so far at least as the principle of cultivation is concerned.

At the instigation of the French Government, he made a voyage of

exploration round the coasts of France and Italy, in order to inquire

into the condition of the sea-fisheries, which were, it was thought, in

a declining condition. It was his “mission,” and he fulfilled it very

well, to see how these marine fisheries could be artificially aided,

as the fresh-water fisheries had been aided through the rediscovery

by Joseph Remy of the long-forgotten plan of pisciculture, as already

detailed in a preceding portion of this work.

The breeding of oysters was a business pursued with great assiduity

during what I have called the gastronomic age of Italy, the period when

Lucullus kept a stock of fish valued at £50,000 sterling, and Sergius

Orata invented the art of oyster-culture. There is not a great deal

known about this ancient gentleman, except that he was an epicure of

most refined taste (the “master of luxury” he was called in his own

day), and some writers of the period thought him a very greedy person,

a kind of dealer in shell-fish. It was thought also that he was a

housebroker or person who bought or built houses, and having improved

them, sold them to considerable advantage. He received, however, an

excellent character, while standing his trial for using the public

waters of Lake Lucrinus for his own private use, from his advocate

Licinus Crassus, who said that the revenue officer who prevented Orata

was mistaken if he thought that gentleman would dispense with his

oysters, even if he was driven from the Lake of Lucrinus, for, rather

than not enjoy his molluscous luxury, he would grow them on the tops of

his houses.

Lake Fusaro, of which I give a kind of bird’s-eye view, is highly

interesting to all who take an interest in the prosperity of the

fisheries, as the first seat of oyster-culture. It is the Avernus

of Virgil, and is a black volcanic-looking pool of water, about a

league in circumference, which lies between the site of the Lucrine

Lake—the lake used by Orata—and the ruins of the town of Cumæ. It

is still extant, being even now, as I have said, devoted to the

highly profitable art of oyster-farming, yielding, as has often been

published, from this source an annual revenue of about £1200. This

classic sheet of water was at one time surrounded by the villas of

the wealthy Italians, who frequented the place for the joint benefit

of the sea-water baths and the shell-fish commissariat, which had

been established in the two lakes (Avernus and Lucrine). The place,

which, before then, was overshadowed by thick plantations, had been

consecrated by the superstitious to the use of the infernal gods.

[Illustration: LAKE FUSARO.

The accompanying engraving gives a general view of Lake Fusaro

(the Avernus of the ancients), showing here and there the stakes

surrounding the artificial banks, the single and double ranges of

stakes on which the faggots are suspended, and at one extremity the

labyrinths, in the face of which is a canal of from 2½ to 3 metres

broad and 1½ metres deep joining the lake to the sea. A small lake,

believed to be the ancient Cocytus, communicates with this canal.

The pavilion in the lake is the ordinary residence of the persons in

charge of the fishery.

]

[Illustration: OYSTER-PYRAMID.]

[Illustration: OYSTER-FASCINES.]

The mode of oyster-breeding at this place, then as now, was to erect

artificial pyramids of stones in the water, surrounded by stakes of

wood, in order to intercept the spawn, the oyster being laid down on

the stones. I have shown these modes in the accompanying engravings.

Faggots of branches were also used to collect the spawn, which, as I

have already said, requires, within forty-eight hours of its emission,

to secure a holding-on place or be lost for ever. The plan of the

Fusaro oyster-breeders struck M. Coste as being eminently practical

and suitable for imitation on the coasts of France: he had one of the

stakes pulled up, and was gratified to find it covered with oysters

of all ages and sizes. The Lake Fusaro system of cultivation was

therefore, at the instigation of Professor Coste, strongly recommended

for imitation by the French Government to the French people, as being

the most suitable to follow, and experiments were at once entered upon

with a view to prove whether it would be as practicable to cultivate

oysters as easily among the agitated waves of the open sea as in

the quiet waters of Fusaro. In order to settle this point, it was

determined to renew the old oyster-beds in the Bay of St. Brieuc, and

notwithstanding the fact that the water there is exceedingly deep and

the winds very violent, immediate and almost miraculous success was

the result. The fascines laid down soon became covered with seed, and

branches were speedily exhibited at Paris, and other places, containing

thousands of young oysters. The experiments in oyster-culture tried at

St. Brieuc were commenced early in the spring of 1859, on part of a

space of 3000 acres that was deemed suitable for the reception of spat.

A quantity of breeding oysters, approaching to three millions, was

laid down either on the old beds or on newly-constructed longitudinal

banks; these were sown thick on a bottom composed chiefly of immense

quantities of old shells—the “middens” of Cancale in fact, where the

shell accumulation had become a nuisance—so that there was a more than

ordinary good chance for the spat finding at once a proper holding-on

place. Then again, over some of the new banks, fascines made of boughs

tightly tied together were sunk and chained over the beds, so as to

intercept such portions of the spawn as were likely, upon rising, to

be carried away by the force of the tide. In less than six months the

success of the operation in the Bay of St. Brieuc was assured; for, at

the proper season, a great fall of spawn had occurred, and the bottom

shells were covered with the spat, while the fascines were so thickly

coated with young oysters that an estimate of 20,000 for each fascine

was not thought an exaggeration.

In a piscicultural report for 1860, we obtain, in connection with the

St. Brieuc experiments, an idea of the cost of oyster-breeding, which

I translate for the benefit of people at home:—“The total expenses

for forming a bank were 221 francs; and if the 300 fascines laid down

upon it be multiplied by 20,000 (the number of oysters they contain),

6,000,000 will be obtained, which, if sold at twenty francs a thousand,

will produce 120,000 francs. If, however, the number of oysters on a

fascine were to be reckoned at only 10,000, the sum of 60,000 francs

would be received, which, for an expenditure of only 221 francs, would

give a larger profit than any other branch of industry.”

Twelve months, however, before the date of the experiments I have

been describing at St. Brieuc, the artificial culture of oysters had

successfully commenced on another part of the coast—namely, the Ile de

Re off the shore of the lower Charente (near la Rochelle), in the Bay

of Biscay, which may now be designated the capital of French oysterdom,

having more _parcs_ and _claires_ than Marennes, Arcachon, Concarneau,

Cancale, and all the rest of the coast put together, and which, before

it became celebrated for its oyster-growing, was only known in common

with other places in France for its successful culture of the vine. It

is curious to note the rapid growth of the industry of oyster-culture

on the Ile de Re. It was begun so recently as 1858, and there are now

upwards of 4000 parks and claires upon its shores, and the people may

be seen as busy in their fish-parks as the market-gardeners of Kent in

their strawberry-beds. Oyster-farming on the Ile was inaugurated by a

stone-mason having the curious name of Beef.

This shrewd fellow, who was a keen observer of nature, and had seen

the oyster-spat grow to maturity, began thinking of oyster-culture

simultaneously with Professor Coste, and wondering if it could be

carried out on those portions of the public foreshore that were left

dry by the ebb of the waters. He determined to try the experiment on

a small scale, so as to obtain a practical solution of his “idea,”

and, with this view, he enclosed a small portion of the foreshore of

the island by building a rough dyke about eighteen inches in height.

In this park he laid down a few bushels of growing oysters, placing

amongst them a quantity of large stones, which he gathered out of the

surrounding mud. This initiatory experiment was so successful, that in

the course of a year he was able to sell £6 worth of oysters from his

stock. This result was of course very encouraging to the enterprising

mason, and the money was just in a sense found money, for the oysters

went on growing while he was at work at his own proper business as a

mason. Elated by the profit of his experiment, he proceeded to double

the proportions of his park, and by that means more than doubled his

oyster commerce, for, in 1861, he was able to dispose of upwards of

£20 worth, and this without impoverishing, in the least degree, his

breeding stock. He continued to increase the dimensions of his farm,

so that by 1862 his sales had increased to £40. As might have been

expected, Beefs neighbours had been carefully watching his experiments,

uttering occasional sneers no doubt at his enthusiasm, but, for all

that, quite ready to go and do likewise whenever the success of the

industrious mason’s experiments became sufficiently developed to

show that they were profitable as well as practical. After Beef had

demonstrated the practicability of oyster-farming, the extension

of the system over the foreshores of the island, between Point de

Rivedoux and Point de Lome, was rapid and effective; so much so that

two hundred beds were conceded by the Government previous to 1859,

while an additional five hundred beds were speedily laid down, and

in 1860 large quantities of brood were sold to the oyster-farmers at

Marennes, for the purpose of being manufactured into green oysters in

their claires on the banks of the river Seudre. The first sales after

cultivation had become general amounted to £126, and the next season

the sum reached in sales was upwards of £500, and these moneys, be it

observed, were for very young oysters; because, from an examination

of the dates, it will at once be seen that the brood had not had time

to grow to any great size. So rapid indeed has been the progress of

oyster-culture at the Ile de Re that what were formerly a series of

enormous and unproductive mud-banks, occupying a stretch of shore about

four leagues in length, are now so transformed, and the whole place so

changed, that it seems the work of a miracle. Various gentlemen who

have inspected these farms for the cultivation of oysters speak with

great hopefulness about the success of the experiment. Mr. Ashworth, so

well known for his success as a salmon fisher and breeder in Ireland,

tells me that oyster-farming on the shores of the French coast is

one of the greatest industrial facts of the present age, and thinks

that oyster-farming will in the end be even more profitable than

salmon-breeding. There is only one drawback connected with these and

all other sea-farms in France: the farmers, we regret to say, are only

“tenants at will,”[14] and liable at any moment to be ejected; but

notwithstanding this disadvantage the work of oyster-culture still goes

bravely forward, and it is calculated, in spite of the bad spatting of

the last three years, that there is a stock of oysters in the beds on

the Ile de Re—accumulated in only six years—of the value of upwards of

£100,000.

[Illustration: OYSTER-PARKS.]

Much hard work had no doubt to be endured before such a scene of

industry could be thoroughly organised. When the great success of

Beef’s experiments had been proclaimed in the neighbourhood, a little

army of about a thousand labourers came down from the interior of

the country and took possession, along with the native fishermen, of

the shores, portions of which were conceded to them by the French

Government at a nominal rent of about a franc a week, for the purpose

of being cultivated as oyster parks and claires. The most arduous duty

of these men consisted in clearing off the mud, which lay on the shore

in large quantities, and which is fatal to the oyster in its early

stages; but this had to be done before the shores could be turned to

the purpose for which they were wished. After this preliminary business

had been accomplished, the rocks had to be blasted in order to find

stones for the construction of the park-walls; then these had to be

built, and the ground had also to be paved in a rough and ready kind

of way; foot-roads had also to be arranged for the convenience of

the farmers, and carriage-ways had likewise to be made to admit of

the progress of vehicles through the different farms. Ditches had to

be contrived to carry off the mud; the parks had to be stocked with

breeding oysters, and to be kept carefully free from the various kinds

of sea animals that prey upon the oyster; and many other daily duties

had to be performed that demanded the minute attention of the owners.

But all obstacles were in time overcome, and some of the breeders have

been so very successful of late years as to be offered a sum of £100

for the brood attached to twelve of their rows of stones, the cost

of laying these down being about two hundred francs! To construct an

oyster-bed thirty yards square costs about £12 of English money, and

it has been calculated that the return from some of the beds has been

as high as 1000 per cent! The whole industry of the Ile is wonderful

when it is considered that it has been all organised in a period of

seven years. Except a few privately-kept oysters, there was no oyster

establishment on the island previous to 1858.

The following authentic statistics, collected by Mr. Thomas Ashworth,

of the oyster industry of the island of Re, when only in the fourth

year of culture, may prove interesting to my readers:—

Parks for collecting spawn and breeding 2,424

Fattening-ponds (claires) 839

Supposed number of oysters in parks 74,242,038

Aggregate number in the claires 1,026,282

Revenue of the parks 1,086,230 francs.

Revenue of the claires 40,015 ”

Hectares of ground in parks and claires 146

Proprietors of beds 1,700

[Illustration: OYSTER-CLAIRES.]

Some gentlemen from the island of Jersey who visited Re report that

an incredible quantity of oysters has been produced on that shore,

which a few years ago was of no value, so that this branch of industry

now realises an extraordinary revenue, and spreads comfort among a

large number of families who were previously in a state of comparative

indigence. But more interesting even than the material prosperity that

has attended the introduction of this industry into the island of Re is

the moral success that has accrued to the experiment. Excellent laws

have been enacted by the oyster-farmers themselves for the government

of the colony. A kind of parliament has been devised for carrying on

arguments as to oyster-culture, and to enable the four communities,

into which the population has been divided, to communicate to each

other such information as may be found useful for the general good

of all engaged in oyster-farming. Three delegates from each of the

communities are elected to conduct the general business, and to

communicate with the Department of Marine when necessary.

A small payment is made by every farmer as a contribution to the

general expense, while each division of the community employs a special

watchman to guard the crops, and see that all goes on with propriety

and good faith; and although each of the oyster-farmers of the Ile

de Re cultivates his own park or claire for his own sole profit and

advantage, they most willingly obey the general laws that have been

enacted for the good of the community. It is pleasant to note this.

We cannot help being gratified at the happy moral results of this

wonderful industry, and it will readily be supposed that with both

vine-culture (for the islanders have fine vineyards) and oyster-culture

to attend to, these farmers are kept very busy. Indeed, the growing

commerce—the export of the oysters, and the import of other commodities

for the benefit of so industrious a population—incidental to such an

immense growth of shell-fish as can be carried on in the 4000 parks

and claires which stud the foreground of Re must be arduous; but as

the labour is highly remunerative, the labourers have great cause for

thankfulness. It is right, however, to state that, with all the care

that can be exercised, there is still an enormous amount of waste

consequent on the artificial system of culture; the present calculation

is, that even with the best possible mode of culture the average of

reproduction is as yet only fourteenfold; but it is hoped by those

interested that a much larger ratio of increase will be speedily

attained. This is desirable, as prices have gone on steadily increasing

since the time that Beef first experimented. In 1859 the sales were

effected at about the rate of fifteen shillings per bushel, for the

lowest qualities—the highest being double that price; these were for

fattening in the claires, and when sold again they brought from two to

three pounds per bushel.

One of the most lucrative branches of foreign oyster-farming may be

now described—_i.e._ the manufacture of the celebrated green oysters.

The greening of oysters, many of which are brought from the Ile de Re

parks, is extensively carried on at Marennes, on the banks of the river

Seudre, and this particular branch of oyster industry, which extends

for leagues along the river, and is also sanctioned by free grants

from the state, has some features that are quite distinct from those

we have been considering, as the green oyster is of considerably more

value than the common white oyster. The peculiar colour and taste of

the green oyster are imparted to it by the vegetable substances which

grow in the beds where it is manipulated. This statement, however, is

scarcely an answer to the question of “why,” or rather “how,” do the

oysters become green? Some people maintain that the oyster green is

a disease of the liver-complaint kind, whilst there are others who

attribute the green colour to a parasite that overgrows the mollusc.

But the mode of culture adopted is in itself a sufficient answer to

the question. The industry carried on at Marennes consists chiefly of

the fattening in claires, and the oysters operated upon are at one

period of their lives as white as those which are grown at any other

place; indeed it is only after being steeped for a year or two in the

muddy ponds of the river Seudre that they attain their much-prized

green hue. The enclosed ponds for the manufacture of these oysters—and,

according to all epicurean authority, the green oyster becomes “_the_

oyster _par excellence_”—require to be watertight, for they are not

submerged by the sea, except during very high tides. Each claire is

about one hundred feet square. The walls for retaining the waters

require therefore to be very strong; they are composed of low but broad

banks of earth, five or six feet thick at the base and about three feet

in height. These walls are also useful as forming a promenade on which

the watchers or workers can walk to and fro and view the different

ponds. The flood-gates for the admission of the tide require also to

be thoroughly watertight and to fit with great precision, as the stock

of oysters must always be kept covered with water; but a too frequent

flow of the tide over the ponds is not desirable, hence the walls,

which serve the double purpose of both keeping in and keeping out the

water. A trench or ditch is cut in the inside of each pond for the

better collection of the green slime left at each flow of the tide, and

many tidal inundations are necessary before the claire is thoroughly

prepared for the reception of its stock. When all these matters of

construction and slime-collecting have been attended to, the oysters

are then scattered over the ground, and left to fatten. When placed in

these greening claires they are usually from twelve to sixteen months

old, and they must remain for a period of two years at least before

they can be properly greened, and if left a year longer they are all

the better; for I maintain that an oyster should be at least about

four years old before it is sent to table. In a privately-printed

pamphlet on the French oyster-fisheries, sent to me by Mr. Ashworth,

it is stated that oysters deposited in the claires for feeding possess

the same powers of reproduction as those kept in the breeding-ponds.

“Their progeny is deposited in the same profusion, but that progeny not

coming in contact with any solid body, it inevitably perishes, unless

it can attach itself to the vertical sides of some erection.” A very

great deal of attention must be devoted to the oysters while they are

in the greening-pond, and they must be occasionally shifted from one

pond to another to ensure perfect success. Many of the oyster-farmers

of Marennes have two or three claires suitable for their purpose. The

trade in these green oysters is very large, and they are found to be

both palatable and safe, the greening matter being furnished by the

sea. Some of the breeders or rather manufacturers of green oysters,

anxious to be soon rich, content themselves with placing adult oysters

only in these claires, and these become green in a very short time,

and thus enable the operator to have several crops in a year without

very much trouble. The claires of Marennes furnish about fifty millions

of green oysters per annum, and these are sold at very remunerative

prices, yielding an annual revenue of something like two and a half

millions of francs.

As to the kind of ground most suitable for oyster-growth, Dr. Kemmerer,

of St. Martin’s (Ile de Re), an enthusiast in oyster-culture, gives

us a great many useful hints. I have summarised a portion of his

information:—The artificial culture of the oyster may be considered to

have solved an important question—namely, that the oyster continues

fruitful after it is transplanted from its natural abode in the deep

sea to the shores. This removal retards but never hinders fecundation.

The sea oyster, however, is the most prolific, as the water at a

considerable depth is always tranquil, which is a favourable point in

oyster-growth; but the shore oyster-banks will also be very productive,

having two chances of replenishment—namely, from the parent oysters in

the _parcs_, and from those currents that may float seed from banks

in the sea. Muddy ground is excellent for the _growth_ of oysters;

they grow in such localities very quickly, and become saleable in a

comparatively short space of time. Dry rocky ground is not so suitable

for the young oyster, as it does not find a sufficiency of food upon

it, and consequently languishes and dies. Marl is the most esteemed,

and on it the oyster is said to become perfect in form and excellent in

flavour. In the marl the young oyster finds plenty of food, constant

heat, and perfect quiet. Wherever there is mud and sun there will be

found the little molluscs, crustacea, and swimming infusoria, which are

the food of the oyster. The culture of the oyster in the mud-ponds and

in the marl—a culture which ought some day to become general—changes

completely its qualities; the albumen becomes fatty, yellow or green,

oily, and of an exquisite flavour. The animal and phosphorus matter

increases, as does the osmozone. This oyster, when fed, becomes

exquisite food. In effecting the culture of the sea-shores and of the

marl-ponds, I am pursuing a practical principle of great importance, by

the conversion of millions of shore oysters, squandered without profit,

into food for public consumption. The green oyster, to this day, has

only been regarded as a luxury for the tables of the rich; but, as I

have indicated, there are an immense number of farms or ponds on the

Seudre, and I would like to see it used as food by everyone.

The French oyster-farmers are happy and prosperous. The wives assist

their husbands in all the lighter labours, such as separating and

arranging the oysters previous to their being placed on the claires. It

is also their duty to sell the oysters; and for this purpose they leave

their home about the end of August and proceed to a particular town,

there to await and dispose of such quantities of shell-fish as their

husbands may forward to them. In this they resemble the fisherwomen of

other countries. The Scotch fishwives do all the business connected

with the trade carried on by their husbands; it is the husbands’ duty

to capture the fish only, and the moment they come ashore their duties

cease, and those of their wives and daughters begin with the sale and

barter of the fish.

Before going farther, it may be stated that the best mode of receiving

the spawn of the oyster has not been determined. M. Coste, whose advice

is well worthy of being followed, recommended the adoption of fascines

of brushwood to be fixed over the natural oyster-beds in order to

intercept the young ones; others again, as we have just seen, have

adopted the parcs, and have successfully caught the spawn on dykes

constructed for that purpose; but Dr. Kemmerer has invented a tile,

which he covers with some kind of composition that can, when occasion

requires, be easily peeled off, so that the crop of oysters that may

be gathered upon it can be transferred from place to place with the

greatest possible ease, and this plan is useful for the transference

of the oyster from the collecting _parc_ to the fattening _claire_.

The annexed drawing will give an idea of the Doctor’s invention. The

composition and the adhering oyster may all be stripped off in one

piece, and the tile may be coated for future use. Tiles are exceedingly

useful in aiding the oyster-breeder to avoid the natural enemies of

the oyster, which are very numerous, especially at the periods when

it is young and tender. The oysters may be peeled off the tiles when

they are six or seven months old. Spat-collectors of wood have also

been tried with considerable success. Hitherto these tiles have been

very successful, although it is thought by experienced breeders that

no bottom for oysters is so good as the natural one of “cultch,” as

the old oyster-shells are called, but the tile is often of service in

catching the “floatsome,” as the dredgers call the spawn, and to secure

that should be one of the first objects of the oyster-farmer.

[Illustration: OYSTER-TILES.]

We glean from these proceedings of the French pisciculturists the

most valuable lessons for the improvement and conduct of our British

oyster-parks. If, as seems to be pretty certain, each matured oyster

yields about two millions of young per annum, and if the greater

proportion of these can be saved by being afforded a permanent

resting-place, it is clear that, by laying down a few thousand

breeders, we may, in the course of a year or two, have, at any place

we wish, a large and reproductive oyster-farm. With reference to

the question of growth, Coste tells us that stakes which had been

fixed for a period of thirty months in the lake of Fusaro were quite

loaded with oysters when they came to be removed. These were found to

embrace a growth of three seasons. Those of the first year’s spawning

were ready for the market; the second year’s brood were a good deal

smaller; whilst the remainder were not larger than a lentil. To attain

miraculous crops similar to those once achieved in the Bay of St.

Brieuc, or at the Ile de Re, little more is required than to lay down

the spawn in a nice rocky bay, or in a place paved for the purpose,

and having as little mud about it as possible. A place that had a good

stream of water flowing into it is the most desirable, so that the

flock might procure food of a varied and nutritious kind. A couple of

hundred stakes driven into the soft places of the shore, between high

and low water mark, and these well supplied with branches held together

by galvanised iron wire (common rope would soon become rotten), would,

in conjunction with the rocky ground, afford capital holding-on places,

so that any quantity of spawn might, in time, be developed into fine

“natives,” or “whiskered pandores.” There are hundreds of places on the

English and Irish coasts where such farms could be advantageously laid

down.

As showing the productiveness of some of the French oyster-beds, it

may be stated that 350,000 oysters were obtained in the space of an

hour from the Plessix bed, which is half a mile from the port of

Auray; and, within a month or two after the opening of those beds,

upwards of twenty millions were brought into port, giving employment

to 1200 fishermen. The gentlemen from Jersey who explored the French

oyster-beds saw in the bay of Arcachon, at Testé, many beds which were

highly productive. One man had laid down 500,000 oysters, and these he

estimated had increased in three years to seven millions! I may just

be allowed to give here one other illustration of oyster-growth; the

figures appertain to the Ile de Re: “The inspectors recently counted

600 full-grown oysters to the square metre, and seeing that 630,000

square metres are now under cultivation, it follows that the oysters

on this tract of desert mud are worth from six to eight millions of

francs, the total crop being (at the time spoken of) 378,000,000 of

oysters!”

A large oyster-farm requires a great deal of careful attention, and

several people are necessary to keep it in order. If the farm be

planted in a bay where the water is very shallow, there is great danger

of the stock suffering from frost; and again, if the brood be laid

down in very deep water, the oysters do not fatten or grow rapidly

enough for profit. In dredging, the whole of the oysters, as they are

hauled on board, should be carefully examined and picked; all below a

certain size ought to be returned to the water till their beards have

grown large enough. In winter, if the beds be in shallow water, the

tender brood must be placed in a pit for protection from the frost;

which of course takes up a great deal of time. Dead oysters ought

to be carefully removed from the beds. The proprietors of private

“layings” are generally careful on this point, and put themselves

to great trouble every spring to lift or overhaul all their stock

in order to remove the dead or diseased. Mussels must be carefully

rooted out from the beds; otherwise they would in a short time render

them valueless. The layings for example, of Mr. David Plunkett, in

Killery Bay, for which he had a licence from the Irish Board of

Fisheries, were overrun by mussels, and so rendered almost valueless.

The weeding and tending of an oyster-bed requires, therefore, much

labour, and involves either a partnership of several people—which is

usual enough, as at Whitstable—or at least the employment of several

dredgermen and labourers. But, for all that, an oyster-farm may be made

a most lucrative concern. As a guide to the working of a very large

oyster-farm—say a concern of £70,000 a year or thereabout—I shall give

immediately some data of the Whitstable Free Dredgers’ Company; but I

wish first to say that the organisation which is constantly at work

for supplying the great metropolis with oysters is more perfect than

can be said of any other branch of the fish trade. In oyster-culture

we approach in some degree to the French, although we do not, as they

do, except as regards the new company, begin at the beginning and plant

the seed. All that we have yet achieved is the art of nursing the young

“brood,” and of dividing and keeping separate the different kinds of

oysters. This is done in parks or farms on various portions of the

coasts of Kent and Essex, and the whole process, from beginning to end,

may be viewed at Whitstable, where there is a large oyster-ground and

a fine fleet of boats kept for the purpose of dredging and planting.

I have already stated that the Whitstable oyster-beds are held as by

a joint-stock company, into which, however, there is no other way of

entrance than by birth, as none but the free dredgermen of the town

can hold shares. When a man dies his interest in the company dies with

him, but his widow—if he was a married man—obtains a pension. The

sales from the public and private beds of Whitstable sometimes attain

a total of £200,000 per annum. The business of the company is managed

by twelve directors, who are known as “the Jury.” The stock of oysters

held in the private layings of the company is said to be of the value

of £200,000. The extent of the public and other oyster-ground at

Whitstable is about twenty-seven square miles.

The oyster-farm of Whitstable is a co-operation in the best sense of

the term, and has been in existence for a long period. The layings at

Whitstable occupy about a mile and a half square, and the oyster-beds

there have been so very prosperous as to have attained the name of

the “happy fishing-grounds.” At Whitstable, Faversham, and adjoining

grounds, not counting a large surface granted to a newly-formed

company, a space of twenty-seven square miles, as I have mentioned

above, is taken up in oyster-farms, and the industry carried on in

this space of ground involves the annual earning and expenditure of a

very large sum of money. Over 3000 people are employed in the various

industries connected with the fishery, who earn capital wages all the

year round—the sum paid for labour by the different companies being set

down at over £160,000 per annum; and in addition to this expenditure

for wages, there is likewise a large sum of money annually expended

for the repairing and purchasing of boats, sails, dredges, and other

implements used in oyster-fishing. At Whitstable the course of work

is as follows:—The business of the company is to feed oysters for the

London and other markets; for this purpose they buy brood or spat,

and lay it down in their beds to grow. When the company’s own oysters

produce a spat—that is, when the spawn, or “floatsome” as the dredgers

call it, emitted from their own beds falls upon their own ground—it is

of great benefit to them, as it saves purchases of brood to the extent

of what has fallen; but this falling of the spat is in a great degree

accidental, for no rule can be laid down as to whether the oysters will

spawn in any particular year, or where the spawn may be carried to.

No artificial contrivances of the kind known in France have yet been

used at Whitstable for the saving of the spawn. I will now explain,

before going further, the ratio of oyster-growth. While in the spat

state it is calculated that a bushel measure will contain 25,000

oysters. When the spawn is two years old it is called brood, and while

in this condition a bushel measure will hold 5500. In the next stage

of growth, oysters are called ware, and it takes about 2000 of them to

fill the bushel. In the final or oyster stage a bushel contains about

1500 individuals. Very large sums have been paid in some years by the

Whitstable company for brood with which to stock their grounds, great

quantities being collected from the Essex side, there being a number of

people who derive a comfortable income from collecting oyster-brood on

the public foreshores, and disposing of it to persons who have private

nurseries, or oyster-layings as these are locally called. The grounds

of Pont are particularly fruitful in spat, and yield large quantities

to all that require it. Pont is an open space of water, sixteen miles

long by three broad, free to all; about one hundred and fifty boats,

each with crews of three or four men, find constant employment upon

it, in obtaining young oysters, which they sell to the neighbouring

oyster-farmers, although it is certain that the brood thus freely

obtained must have floated out of beds belonging to the purchasers. The

price of brood is often as high as forty shillings per bushel, and it

is the sum obtained over this cost price that must be looked to for the

paying of wages and the realisation of profit. Oysters have risen in

price very much of late years, and brood has also, in consequence of

the scarcity of spat, been proportionally high.

Whitstable oyster-beds are “worked” with great industry, and it is

the process of “working” that gives employment to so many people, and

improves the Whitstable oysters so much beyond those found on the

natural beds, which are known as “Commons,” in contradistinction to

the bred oysters of Whitstable and other grounds, which are called

“Natives.” These latter are justly considered to be of superior

flavour, although no particular reason can be given for their being

so, and indeed in many instances they are not natives at all—that is

in the sense of being spatted on the ground—but are, on the contrary,

a grand mixture of all kinds of oysters, brood being brought from

Prestonpans and Newhaven in the Firth of Forth, and from many other

places, to augment the stock. The so-called “native” oysters—and the

name is usually applied to all that are bred in the estuary of the

Thames—are very large in flesh, succulent and delicate in flavour,

and fetch a much higher price than any other oyster. The beds of

natives are all situated on the London clay, or on similar formations.

There can, however, be no doubt that the difference in flavour and

quantity of flesh is obtained by the Thames system of transplanting

and working that is vigorously carried on over all the beds. Every

year the whole extent of the layings is gone over and examined by

means of the dredge; successive portions are dredged over day by day,

till it may be said that almost every individual oyster is examined.

On the occasion of these examinations, the brood is detached from the

cultch, double oysters are separated, and all kinds of enemies—and

these are very numerous—are seized upon and killed. It requires about

eight men per acre to work the beds effectually. During three days a

week, dredging for what is called the “planting” is carried on; that

is, the transference of the oysters from one place to another, as may

be thought suitable for their growth, and also the removing of dead

ones, the clearing away of mussels, and so on. On the other three days

of the week it becomes the duty of the men to dredge for the London

market, when only so many are lifted as are required. A bell is carried

round and rung every morning to rouse the dredgers whose turn it is

for duty, and who at a given signal start to do their portion of the

work. As to this working of the oyster-beds, an eminent authority has

said it is utterly useless to enclose a piece of ground and simply

plant it; it is utterly useless to throw a lot of oysters down amongst

every state of filth. You must keep constantly dredging, not only the

bed itself, but the public beds outside, so as to keep the bottom fit

for the reception and growth of the young oysters, and free of its

multitudinous natural enemies.

It may as well be explained here also, that what are called native

beds are all cultivated beds; the natural beds are uncultivated, and

are generally public and free to all comers. The Colne beds, however,

are an exception: they are natural beds, but are held by the city of

Colchester as property. Whenever a new bed is discovered anywhere

nowadays, the run upon it is so great that it is at once despoiled

of its shelly treasures; and the native beds would soon become

exhausted if they were not systematically conducted on sound commercial

principles, and regularly replenished with brood.

As regards the oyster-cultivation of the river Colne, some interesting

statistics have been recently made public at Colchester by Councillor

Hawkins. That gentleman tells us that oyster-brood increases fourfold

in three years. The quantity of oysters in a London bushel is as

follows:—First year, _spat_, number not ascertainable; second year,

_brood_, 6400; third year, _ware_, 2400; fourth year, _oysters_, 1600;

therefore, four wash of brood (_i.e._ four pecks), purchased at say

5s. per wash, increase by growth and corresponding value to 42s. per

bushel, or a sum of eight guineas. The Whitstable dredgers, it is said,

drew £60,000 for their oysters in 1860—viz. £10,000 for “commons,” and

£50,000 for “natives;” but out of this sum they had of course to pay

for “brood.” The gross amount received by the Colne Fishery Company for

oysters sold during the last ten years, ending at July 1862, appears

by the treasurer’s account to have been £83,000; the average annual

produce of the Colne Fishery Company having been 4374 bushels for

that period. However, the quantity obtained from the river Colne by

the company bears but a small proportion to the yield from private

layings, which are in general only a few acres in extent. “The private

layings,” however, we are told, “cannot fairly be made the measure of

productiveness for a large fishery; as they may be compared to a garden

in a high state of cultivation, while the fishery generally is better

represented by a large tract of land but partially reclaimed from a

state of nature.” The difference in cost of working a big fishery and

a little one seems to be great. One of the owners of a private laying

states that, when the expense of dredging or lifting the oysters

exceeded 4s. per bushel, he gave up working, while in the Colne Fishery

dredgermen are never paid less than 12s., and sometimes as high as 40s.

a bushel. The Colne Company is managed by a jury of twelve, appointed

by the water-bailiff, who is under the jurisdiction of the corporation

of Colchester. Whenever it is time to begin the season’s operations,

the jury meet and take stock of the oysters on hand, fix the price at

which sales are to be made, and regulate the charge for dredging, which

is paid by the wash. Under direction of the jury, the foreman of the

company sets the daily stint to the men; and so the work, which is very

light, goes pleasantly forward from season to season.

As showing in a tabular form the ratio of oyster-reproduction, I here

subjoin, from the Irish Oyster Blue Book, edited by Mr. Barry, a “Table

showing the estimated annual rate of development and increase of value,

calculated at fourfold, during a period of four years, of a breeding

oyster-bed of the extent of one acre, situated in the Thames estuary,

capable of producing a good quality of ‘natives,’ and stocked with 1000

bushels of oysters, of 1600 each:”—

FIRST YEAR.

256 bushels containing each 25,000 oysters, 1st year’s

spawn, in 1st year of growth, spat at 20s. per

bushel £ 256

SECOND YEAR.

1000 bushels, containing each 6400 oysters, 1st year’s

spawn, in 2d year of growth, brood at 25s. per

bushel £1,250

256 bushels, containing each 25,000 oysters, 2d year’s

spawn, in 1st year of growth, spat at 20s. per

bushel 256

—————- £1,506

THIRD YEAR.

2667 bushels, containing each 2400 oysters, 1st year’s

spawn, in 3d year of growth, ware at 30s. per

bushel £4,000

1000 bushels, containing each 6400 oysters, 2d year’s

spawn, in 2d year of growth, brood at 25s. per

bushel 1,250

256 bushels, containing each 25,000 oysters, 3d year’s

spawn, in 1st year of growth, spat at 20s. per

bushel 256

—————- 5,502

FOURTH YEAR.

4000 bushels containing each 1600 oysters, 1st year’s

spawn, in 4th year of growth, oysters at 35s. per

bushel £7,000

2667 bushels containing each 2400 oysters, 2d year’s

spawn, in 3d year of growth, ware at 30s. per

bushel 4,000

1000 bushels containing each 6400 oysters, 3d year’s

spawn, in 2d year of growth, brood at 25s. per

bushel 2,500

256 bushels containing each 25,000 oysters, 4th year’s

spawn, in 1st year of growth, spat at 20s. per

bushel 256

———-—— 13,756

At Faversham, Queenborough, and Rochester, there is a large commerce

carried on in this particular shell-fish. In others of the “parks” at

these places, “natives” are grown in perfection. The company of the

burghers of Queenborough grow the fine Milton oyster so well known to

the connoisseur, and the company’s beds are well attended to. I may

note the Faversham Company, said to be the oldest among the Thames

companies, having been in existence for a few centuries. All of these

companies grow the “natives,” and I may explain that the portion of the

beds set apart for the rearing of “natives” is as sacred as the waxen

cells devoted to the growth of queen bees, and the coarser denizens of

the mid-channel are not allowed to be mixed therewith. The management

of all the Kent and Essex oyster companies is pretty much the same, but

there are also gentlemen who trade solely upon their own account; there

is Mr. Allston, for instance, a London oyster-merchant, who keeps his

own fleet of vessels, and does a very large business in this particular

shell-fish.

The demand for native and other oysters by the Londoners alone is

something wonderful, and constitutes of itself a large branch of

commerce—as the numerous gaily-lit shell-fish shops of the Strand

and Haymarket will testify. These emporiums for the sale of oysters

and stout are mostly fed through Billingsgate, which is the chief

piscatorial bourse of the great metropolis. It is not easy to arrive

at correct statistics of what London requires in the way of oysters;

but, if we set the number down as being nearly 800,000,000 we shall

not be very far wrong. To provide these, the dredgermen or fisher

people at Colchester, and other places on the Essex and Kent coasts,

prowl about the sea-shore and pick up all the little oysters they can

find—these ranging from the size of a threepenny-piece to a shilling;

and persons and companies having layings purchase them to be nursed

and fattened for the table, as already described. At other places the

spawn itself is collected, by picking it from the pieces of stone, or

the old oyster-shells to which it may have adhered; and it is nourished

in pits, as at Burnham, for the purpose of being sold to the Whitstable

people, who carefully lay that brood in their grounds. A good idea of

the oyster-traffic may be obtained from the fact that, in some years,

the Whitstable men have paid £30,000 for brood, in order to keep up

the stock of their far-famed oysters. Mr. Hawkins says that he knows a

man who is proprietor of only three acres of oyster-layings, and yet

from that confined area he annually sells from 1500 to 2000 wash of the

best native oysters.

The chief centre in England for the distribution of oysters is

Billingsgate, and the countless thousands of bushels of this

molluscous dainty which find their way through “Oyster Street” to

this Fish Exchange mark the everlasting demand. Oysters are sold by

the bushel, and every measure is made to pay a toll of fourpence, and

another sum of a like amount for carriage to the shore. All oysters

sold at Billingsgate are liable to this eightpenny tax. The London

oysters—and I regret to say it, for there is nothing finer than a

genuine oyster—are sophisticated in the cellars of the buyers, by being

stuffed with oatmeal till the flavour is all but lost in the fat.

The flavour of oysters—like the flavour of all other animals—depends

on their feeding. The fine _goût_ of the highly-relished Prestonpans

oysters is said to be derived from the fact of their feeding on the

refuse liquor which flows from the saltpans of that neighbourhood. I

have eaten of fine oysters taken from a bank that was visited by a

rather questionable stream of water; they were very large, fat, and

of exquisite flavour, the shell being more than usually well filled

with “meat.” What the London oysters gain in fat by artificial feeding

they assuredly lose in flavour. The harbour of Kinsale (a receptacle

for much filth) used to be remarkable for the size and flavour of its

oysters. The beds occupied the whole harbour, and the oysters there

were at one time very plentiful, and far exceeded the Cork oysters in

fame (and they have long been famous); but they were so overfished as

to be long since used up, much to the loss of the Irish people, who are

particularly fond of oysters, and delight in their “Pooldoodies” and

“Red-banks” as much as the English and Scotch do in their “Natives”

and “Pandores.”

The far-famed Scottish oysters obtained near Edinburgh, and once so

cheap, are becoming scarce and dear, and the scalps or beds are being

so rapidly overfished that, in a short time, if the devastation be

not at once stopped, the pandore and Newhaven oysters will soon be

but names. Some of the greediest of the dredgermen actually capture

the brood, and, barrelling it up, send it away to Holland and other

places, to supply the artificial beds now being constructed off that

coast. English buyers also come and pick up all they can procure for

the Manchester and other markets. Thus there is an inducement, in the

shape of a good price, to the Newhaven men to spoliate the beds—another

illustration of “killing the goose for the golden egg.” The growth of

the railway system has also extended the Newhaven men’s market. Before

the railway period very few boats went out at the same time to dredge;

then oysters were very plentiful—so plentiful, in fact, that three

men in a boat could, with ease, procure 3000 oysters in a couple of

hours; but now, so great is the change in the productiveness of the

scalps, that three men consider it an excellent day’s work to procure

about the fifth part of that quantity. The Newhaven oyster-beds lie

between Inchkeith and Newhaven, and belong to the city of Edinburgh,

and were given in charge to the free fishermen of that village, on

certain conditions, which are at present systematically disregarded.

The rental paid by the Newhaven men to the city is £10 per annum, and

a sum of £25 per annum is paid by the same parties for the use of the

oyster-beds belonging to the Duke of Buccleuch, which are also situated

in the Firth of Forth, just off the port of Granton; and besides these

there are one or two beds in the Firth of Forth of considerable size

belonging to the crown, which have been also worked by the Newhaven

men. The beds are of great extent, and years ago used to yield for

the consumption of the city of Edinburgh from six to eight thousand

oysters a day, but I question very much if we shall obtain anything

like that quantity during this present season. The proprietor of the

most popular Edinburgh tavern experiences the greatest difficulty

in obtaining oysters; and I take this opportunity of informing the

Lord Provost of that city that, in the course of a year or two, “Auld

Reekie” will, most probably, unless the authorities actively bestir

themselves in the matter, have to obtain her oysters from Colchester or

Whitstable. Last season (1864-65), thousands of barrels full of young

oysters were disposed off to English and foreign fishermen at the rate

of about 20s. a barrel. This, surely, is a state of things dreadful

for Scotchmen to contemplate. In former and more energetic times, the

municipal authorities of the modern Athens used to venture on a voyage

of exploration to view their scalps, and afterwards hold a feast of

shells, as they do yet at _some_ oyster towns on the annual opening of

the fishery.[15]

[Illustration: OYSTER-DREDGING AT COCKENZIE.]

The “pandore” oysters are principally obtained at the village of

Prestonpans and the neighbouring one of Cockenzie. Dredging for oysters

is a principal part of the occupation of the Cockenzie fishermen.

There are few lovers of this dainty mollusc who have not heard of

the “whiskered pandores.” The pandore oyster is so called because

of being found in the neighbourhood of the saltpans. It is a large

fine-flavoured oyster, as good as any “native” that ever was brought

to table, the Pooldoodies of Burran not excepted. The men of Cockenzie

derive a good portion of their annual income from the oyster traffic.

The pursuit of the oyster, indeed, forms a phase of fisher life there

as distinct as at Whitstable. The times for going out to dredge are

at high tide and low tide. The boats used are the smaller-sized ones

employed in the white fishery. The dredge somewhat resembles in shape a

common clasp-purse; it is formed of network, attached to a strong iron

frame, which serves to keep the mouth of the instrument open, and acts

also as a sinker, giving it a proper pressure as it travels along the

oyster-beds. When the boat arrives over the oyster-scalps, the dredge

is let down by a rope attached to the upper ring, and is worked by one

man, except in cases where the boat has to be sailed swiftly, when

two are employed. Of course, in the absence of wind recourse is had

to the oars. The tension upon the rope is the signal for hauling the

dredge on board, when the entire contents are emptied into the boat,

and the dredge returned to the water. These contents, not including the

oysters, are of a most heterogeneous kind—stones, seaweed, star-fish,

young lobsters, crabs, actinæ—all of which are usually returned

to the water, some of them being considered as the most fattening

ground-bait for the codfish. The whelks, clams, mussels, and cockles,

and occasionally the crabs, are used by the fishermen as bait for their

white-fish lines. Once, in a conversation with a veteran dredger as

to what strange things _might_ come in the dredge, he replied, “Well,

master, I don’t know what sort o’ curiosities we sometimes get; but

I have seen gentlemen like yourself go out with us a-dredgin’, and

take away big baskets full o’ things as was neither good for eating or

looking at. The Lord knows what they did with them.” During the whole

time that this dredging is being carried on, the crew keep up a wild

monotonous song, or rather chant, in which they believe much virtue to

lie. They assert that it charms the oysters into the dredge.

“The herring loves the merry moonlight,

The mackerel loves the wind;

But the oyster loves the dredger’s song,

For he comes of a gentle kind.”

Talking is strictly forbidden, so that all the required conversation

is carried on after the manner of the _recitative_ of an opera or

oratorio. An enthusiastic London _litterateur_ and musician, being on

a visit to Scotland, determined to carry back with him, among other

natural curiosities, the words and music of the oyster-dredging song.

But, after being exposed to the piercing east wind for six hours, and

jotting down the words and music of the dredgers, he found it all to

end in nothing; the same words were never used, the words were ever

changing. The oyster-scalps are gone over by the men much in the way

that a field is ploughed by an agricultural labourer, the boat going

and returning until sufficient oysters are secured, or a shift is made

to another bed.

The geographical distribution of oysters is most lavish; wherever there

is a seabord there will they be found. The old stories of ancient

mariners, who sailed the seas before the days of cheap literature, will

be recalled, and their boasted knowledge of the wonders of the fish

world—of oysters that grew on trees, and oysters so large that they

required to be carved just like a round of beef or quarter of lamb. All

these tales were formerly considered so many romances. Who believed

Uncle Jack when he gravely told his wondering nephews about oysters

as large as a soup-plate being found on the coast of Coromandel? But,

nevertheless, Uncle Jack’s stories have been found to be true: there

_are_ large oysters which require carving, and oysters _have_ been

plucked off trees. There are wonderful tales about oysters that have

been taken on the coast of Africa—plucked too from the very trees that

our good, but ignorant, forefathers did not believe in. The ancient

Romans, who knew all the secrets of good living, had the oysters of

all countries brought to their fish-stews, in order that they might

experiment upon them and fatten them for table purposes. Although they

gave the palm to those from Britain, they had a great many varieties

from Africa, and had ingenious modes of transporting them to great

distances which have been lost to modern pisciculturists.

Many other parts of America besides the New York district are famous

for oysters; and in some parts of the American Continent they grow to

a very large size. So important, in fact, do the Americans consider

the oyster, that it has been the subject of innumerable “messages” by

Governors, Vice-Presidents, heads of departments, etc.—the last we

have seen being that of Governor Wise to the Legislature of Virginia.

According to that gentleman’s estimate, Virginia possesses an area of

about 1,680,000 acres of oyster-beds, containing about 784,000,000 of

bushels of that one mollusc. It is estimated by some naturalists that

the oyster spawns at least 3,000,000 annually; yet, notwithstanding

this enormous productive power, and the vast extent of oyster-beds

in this one state, there is danger, the governor tells us, of the

oyster being exterminated, unless measures are taken to prevent

their being dredged at improper seasons of the year. Governor Wise

proposes to confine the oyster-catching business to citizens of the

state exclusively, and to charge three cents a bushel for all the

oysters taken, which he estimates would yield an annual revenue of

480,000 dollars. The governor is of opinion that the oyster-banks so

regulated will pay a better bonus to the state than paper-money banks,

and regards them as a richer source of profit than either gold, iron,

or copper mines. Another of the American States may be mentioned for

its oyster wealth. The seabord of Georgia is famed for its immense

supplies of that mollusc, great breakwaters being formed by oysters,

which keep off the sea from the land; in fact all over America the

oyster is to be found in great abundance. In New York and other cities

evidences are to be seen on all sides of the love of the people for

this favourite mollusc. Oyster-saloons abound in all the principal

streets, and each one appears to do more business than its neighbour.

In these saloons—most of which, though handsomely fitted up, are

situated underground in the basement of some of the great mercantile

establishments for which the chief cities of the Union are famed—the

cooking of oysters is carried on at all hours, and in all modes. A

writer who has described the traffic says: “Oysters pickled, stewed,

baked, roasted, fried, and scolloped; oysters made into soups, patties,

and puddings; oysters with condiments and without condiments; oysters

for breakfast, dinner, and supper; oysters without stint or limit—fresh

as the pure air, and almost as abundant—are daily offered to the

palates of the Manhattanese, and appreciated with all the gratitude

which such a bounty of nature ought to inspire.” So much for America.