and the "Places zvlere foutJtJ. lOX 



Others, inftead of this box, have a net made of ftrong leather 

 thongs, kept open bv means of a heavy fquare iron frame, 

 which, by being dragged on the bottom, rakes up the oyl'tcrs ' 

 and fufters them to be received into the net. Others have a 

 rake with about twenty ftrong iron crooked and bUmt fpikcs 

 eight or ten inches in length, which is faftened to a long 

 thin elaftic pole. The fifliermen, who are in a boat, draw 

 this rake over the bottom in the fame manner as the before- 

 mentioned net, and thus raife the oyfters, which are retained 

 by a board fallened over the rake, fo that they can be drawn 

 up with it. The pole niuft be fufficiently pliable to yield 

 when drawn with force over the inequalities of the bottom. 

 In places where the fifliermen employ more care in colleft- 

 ing the oyfters in order to fpare the banks, they pull up, by 

 means of wooden tongs, when the water is dear, only the 

 largeft oyfters, and fufl'er the reft to remain undifturbed till 

 they grow to the proper fize. There may, however, be other 

 means employed for catchmg ovfters with which I am not 

 acquainted; and it would be a ufcful labour if any perfoa 

 would give a complete trcatife on the oyfter fifhery, with 

 engravings of all the apparatus and inftruments. This, as. 

 far as I know, no one has ever yet done. Duhamel pro- 

 mifed to treat of this fubjeif in his large work on Fifliing, 

 but he died before it was completed. 



Thofe oyfters which are diitinguiflied bv a green colour, 

 and which the Dutch on that account call groenhaardjes, 

 are confidered lo be fuperior to others. But this diftiniSlion 

 is not natural to them, and is produced by art. For this 

 purpofe pits are dug on the fea-fliore, and furniflied with 

 fmall fluices, through which the fea-water is fufiered to enter 

 at the lime of the fpring-tides. When the water has rifen to 

 a certain height the oyilers arc thrown into the pits, where 

 they are left till they acquire the proper colour. Tiiis (lag- 

 nant water, in warm weather, foon becomes green, and in a 

 few days the oyfters alTuiiie tlie fame colour: but they do not 

 acquire their full quality, and become fit for fale, till the end 

 pf fix or eight weeks. 1 am inclined to think that this co- 

 lour is occalioncd by certain jjlanls which grow in the water, 

 pcrlnps an ulva, covjtn-i'a, ox trcjuilla. This wa? the opi- 



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