986 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



owners of such property against depredators. Owing to 

 the technicalities of our law, the taking of oysters was not 

 till recently a felony ; the oysters could not be identified ; 

 and in many parts of England and Scotland great losses 

 were suffered by owners of private beds, from being unable 

 to convict persons who had taken oysters from their beds. 

 These difficulties have now been removed. The taking of 

 oysters illegally from private grounds has been made a 

 felony. The Board of Trade, by an Act passed in 1866, 

 has been authorised to make orders for the establishment 

 and maintenance of oyster-beds along the coast, subject to 

 local inquiry and to the approval of Parliament ; while the 

 rights of the Crown in the foreshores and in the soil of the 

 sea below low-water mark have been transferred to the 

 Board of Trade, for the purpose of facilitating the estab- 

 lishment of these beds. Already numerous applications 

 have been made to the Board of Trade under these Acts, 

 and we doubt not that a great extension of oyster-culture 

 will take place. 



From the following legal quotations from " Stone's 

 Justice's Manual," it will be seen that the Government 

 and Parliament have to a great extent adopted the views 

 of the Commission ; how far in accordance with the 

 Abstract of the Report given, the reader can judge for 

 himself. 



OYSTERS. i. 



" Whosoever shall steal any oysters or oyster-brood from 

 any oyster-bed, laying, or fishery, being the property of 

 any other (fj person, and sufficiently marked out as such 

 Felony^ punishable as for simple larceny. 



(_/) The 30 Viet., c. 18, for the protection of oyster fisheries, 

 contains provisions as to the ownership of oyster-beds, &c. ; and 29 

 and 30 Viet., c. 85, s. 18, as to disturbing or injuring oyster-beds. 



