and the Places where found. 99 



Englifh fifhermen ftrongly recommend deftroying it whcre- 

 ever it is found. But how comes this murderer into the 

 fliell ? In all probabihty it creeps in when the animal opens 

 its fliellj and I thence conclude that the oyfters open their 

 lliclls much wider than Reimarus * and others have ima- 

 gined. Another queftion is, How happens it that the an- 

 cient ichthyologifts, though they mention this fifh, do not 

 obferve that it was found in oyfter-ihells^ which at prcfent 

 is not uncommon ? 



Oyfters are leaneft when they fpawn, or after that period, 

 and on this account fiftiing for them at that time is forbidden 

 in England and other countries where prudent regulation's 

 prevail. In Spain this precaution is employed becaufe it is 

 imagined that at this period the ufe of them as food is inju- 

 rious to the health. It appears that they ought at leaft to 

 be three years old in order to ferve as food f ; and where care 

 is taken for the prcfcrvation of the oyfter-beds, the fifliermen 

 are ordered to fcrape olY all the fmall ones which adhere to 

 thofe that are full grown, and to throw them back into the 

 fea. An old oyfter has often twenty fmall ones attached to 

 it. Very fevere winters injure the oyfter-beds and deftroy 

 the oyfters, as was every where proved during that of the 

 year 1740. Violent ftorms in the fpring are equally preju- 

 dicial, and many beds have been exhaufted by fifhing up too 

 many from them. We are told by Paulus Jovius J, that he 

 remembered the time when oyfters were brought from the 

 coaft of Pefaro to Rome ; but that thefe beds were afterwards 

 entirely exhaufted, and that people were obliged to be fatif- 

 fied with oyfters brought from Corftca, which, -before they 



* Bctrachtungcn iiber die bcfonclern tUierifchen Kunftricbe, p. 17. 



f It is generally believed that the fl-.ellsof mufclcs receive yearly a new 

 coat, and from the number of tiiele their age may be determined, as the 

 age of a tree from the number of its rings. Bur Poli, in his expenfive 

 work on the Ttftaccous Animals of both the Sicilies, the firft part of 

 \\\\\c\\ was printed at Parma in 1791, affures us, tliat he olifervcd that 

 their fue dcs not incrcsfc in fufh a regular" manner as to achnit of tlieir 

 a^c being determined by it. In England the fniblleft oyfters are called 

 oyfter-fced, cuttrb and //>(it, 



\ Dc Romauis pifcibus, cap. xli.p. 139. 



O 2i arrived. 



