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