188 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
trouble in getting a few genuine specimens (Plate xiii., fig. 6),
through the Scottish Fishery Board. The Rev. F. D. Smith,
the well known Scottish archaeologist, told me that he had
tried in vain to get me some living examples from the Newhaven
fishermen. In the Shetlands the beds in the South Voe at Burra,
extending for about a mile outwards on a soft and muddy bottom,
were so cleanly scraped between 1860 and 1880, that the supply
exceeded the demand to such an extent that the surplus shells
were taken to sea again, and thrown overboard without any
discrimination, and ultimately perished. Attempts have been
made to replenish the beds, but the only suitable form, the rock
oyster natural to Shetland, is difficult to cultivate, as it does not
readily accommodate itself to change, and is very sensitive to
atmospheric conditions (Anderson Smith, Fishing News, 1913).
In Ireland, the coast from Carlingford round to Cork, and to
Tralee, was once celebrated for its abundant supplies, but these
are no longer obtainable, except a few preserved in private oyster
grounds, as at Coolmore, Cork, the beds having been nearly
all worked out by 1876, and the fisheries having consequently
fallen off past recovery. Da Costa (op. cit.) refers to the
enormous quantities of this shell in Ireland, and notes
especially a bed of rock oysters as large as horseshoes at Howth
and others at Malahide (where a bed of dead shells occurs on the
shore), and at Irelands Eye "green-finned and of a delicate
flavour."
Forbes and Hanley, in the British Mollusca, vol. ii., 1853,
note various localities in the Channel Islands, Ireland, and the
West Coast as being very productive, which in less than 25
years became practically exhausted. Mr. Sinel, of Jersey, writes
me that it is now difficult to get any of the uncultivated forms,
but sent me some deep-water shells, after much trouble in getting
them. I found the same trouble in the Isle of Man, where they
formerly abounded in 15-25 fathoms of water, between Laxey
and Ramsey.
Dr. Murie, reporting on Sea Fisheries of the Thames Haven,
1903, notices a few patches remaining at the Point by the mouth
of the Blackwater River, and the Kentish Flats as still produc-
tive. From off Dovercourt I have, some isolated shells of the
original stock, obtained at very low tides.
The shell is roundly ovate or subtrigonal, mostly well ribbed