Heavy fall of Spat.

There was an extraordinary fall of spat during the summer of 1901, especially on the Kentish flats, many shells and cultch being literally covered with it. The flatsmen worked several tides on a small piece of ground off Bishopstone, called Boulder Hole, which is surrounded by sandstone rocks, and high boulder banks. It was blowing a hard east wind, and when the water had risen considerably, some deep-keeled Colchester smacks slammed in alongside the flatsmen, and worked until high tide, hauling their dredges up through twenty-four feet of water. They delivered their catch to the Company's Store, amounting to ten washes a boat for one tide's work, and Whitstable people said they had never before seen so much brood delivered, stacked up as it was like a haystack.

It is difficult always to explain the reason for the uncertain presence or absence of spat. A very cold spring time might cause injury to the spat, or prevent the oyster spawning freely, or the advent of a large quantity of five-­rayed starfish, or five-fingers as the fishermen call them, which feed on mussels and cockles, and so sometimes leave immense quantities of clean, empty shells, ready at the moment when the spat is seeking its natural anchorage, may account for a good season. There may be many other causes unsuspected.

It has been supposed that a warm summer induces oysters to spawn freely, but many warm summers pass without the desired harvest of spat. Under the impression that five-fingers were being dredged up too freely, steps were taken recently to put a stop, for a time, to that industry, but there was such an alarm raised by many flatsmen who saw their winter livelihood about to be destroyed, that the Board of Trade declined to pass the required bye-law, and yet the oyster does not seem to have suffered from anticipated harm by the continued removal of so many five-fingers.

Of course the absence of a sufficient number of mature oysters to produce spawn would insure its absence, but this could hardly occur at Whitstable, where this fact is perfectly well understood. By disregarding this obvious fact, natural oyster grounds abroad have sometimes been fished out and rendered quite barren.

Among the English variety is sometimes found what the fishermen call "Button Oysters " or "Buttons," which grow smaller in circumference, it is said, as they grow older they get stunted at the beard end, and grow inwards at the binge. They are regarded as "sports" by some, though others ascribe the peculiarity to the breakage of the thin edges of the shells when young, causing contraction.

Some fishermen say the age of an oyster can be detected by carefully examining the external layers of the shells, to which they assert a new layer is added each year, though I must admit that I find the greatest difficulty in doing so with any accuracy in many of the shells I have examined.