Common Oyster {Ostrea edulis). 241 



the oysters that ai'e put into them in four or five clays, though 

 they commonly let them continue there six weeks or two 

 months, in which time they will be of a dark green. * * 

 The oysters, when the tide comes in, lie with their hollow 

 shell downwards, and when it goes out they turn on the other 

 side ; they remove not from their places unless in cold wea- 

 ther to cover themselves in the ooze. The reason of the 

 scarcity of oysters, and consequently of their dearness, is, 

 because they are of late years bought up by the Dutch. 

 There are great penalties by the Admiralty Court laid upon 

 those that fish out of those grounds which the Court 

 appoints, or that destroy the cultch, or that take any 

 oysters that are not of size, or that do not tread under 

 their feet, or throw upon the shore a fish which they call 

 a Five-finger, resembling a spur-rowel, because that fish 

 gets into the oysters when they gape, and sucks them out. 

 * * * The oysters are sick after they have their spat; 

 but in June and July they begin to mend, and in August are 

 perfectly well. The male oyster is black-sick, having a black 

 substance in the fin ; the female white-sick, having a milky 

 substance in the fin. They are salt in the pits, Salter in the 

 layers, saltest at sea." 



From this old paper the greater part of the matter con- 

 tained in articles on the subject of oyster-fisheries in the seve- 

 ral Encyclopsedias has been derived. In the eai'lier volumes 

 of the " Philosophical Transactions" are several notices on 

 the subject of oysters, especially a short account of the spat 

 by the celebrated Leuwenhoek, and a letter from the Rev, 

 Mr Rowland to Dr Derham, in which it is stated that though 

 the beds in the Menai furnished then (1720), as they do now, 

 abundant oysters, twenty-four years previously none existed 

 in the locality ; they were originally laid down there by a 

 private gentleman. These beds are now recruited from the 

 Irish coast. 



In order to obtain the most recent information respecting 

 the oyster-beds which supply the London market, the extent 

 of the supply, and the opinions of those practically concerned 

 in their management, and in the sale of their products, on 

 points in the history and value of what may be termed culti- 



