264 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



stay ; and if you persist in trespassing, I shall know what 

 to do.' 



" Poor Tyacke found himself much in the predicament 

 of many a flat who has been picked up by a sharp. A 

 century ago law was not justice, nor justice law. Perhaps 

 it may not even be so now ; and the story of the lawyer 

 who ate the oyster in dispute, and gave each of the dispu- 

 tants a shell, may hold as good in our day as it did in that 

 when the author of the ' Beggars' Opera ' put it into 

 verse." () 



The demand for oysters, wherever it exists along our 

 coasts, creates a profitable source of employment to a class 

 of men who necessarily become experienced seamen ; and 

 dredging for oysters is carried on in fleets, as the beds 

 mostly lie within a comparatively small space. " A fleet of 

 oyster-boats at work in one of our bays or estuaries, when 

 there is a freshening breeze, is a sight of no little interest, 

 especially if the sun is going down into its home of mist, 

 yet dyeing with its richest colours, amber, yellow, and 

 crimson, the cirrus and stratus clouds through which he 

 has sailed so joyously the whole day, while the waves, 

 instinct with life, are tossing from one to another the 

 liquid gold with which the setting luminary so bounteously 

 arrays them. The sails may be seen flapping to and fro, 

 and then the boat glides slowly by, with the sun edging 

 the sails, the spars, and the red vane of the mast-head. 

 Everything at such a time assumes the richest colours. 

 The vessels the scene of the dredger's labours ever in 

 motion, tack to and fro over the oyster-beds, their sails 

 now glowing in the sun-light, and then their bows dashing 

 through the crests of the waves, which in return cast over 



A 



(n) "The Oyster." 



