%.^6 Ohfervations refpeSi'mg Oyjiers, 



feven miles from Tondern. From there the oyfter* are con- 

 veyed to Apenrade and Flenfburg, and thence in fliips to the 

 Eaft Sea, where the confumption is greateft, for a barrel 

 Ibmetimes is fold there at the rate of loo roubles. It is not 

 tru,e that they coft dearer to the natives than to foreigners : 

 a hundred coft a dollar; and a barrel, containing from 800 

 10 1000 oyfters, about ten dollars, fometimes more or lefs. 



The number caught, and the confumption, vary exceed- 

 ingly in different years. During ftormy weather and fevere 

 froft, none can be fiflied. The number fifhed up yearly, the 

 leffee, for reafons which cannot be difapproved, has hitherto 

 kepi a fecret; but it is certain that 2000 barrels would fcarcely 

 be fufficient to pay the rent and expences. 



Thefe £liell-fi(h are more or lefs injured by froft and ftormy 

 weather, according to the depth at which they lie. Some 

 beds at high tides have only eight, fome three, and fome 

 fcarcely two fathoms water above them ; and the laft fuffer 

 moft when continued froii: prevails with a wind from the eaft 

 or north, becaufe on thofe occafions the tide is fcarcely per- 

 ceptible on this coaft. The beds during ftormy weather are 

 fometimes covered with fand and fea-weeds, but by the fame 

 caufe they may be freed from them. Thofe beds which are 

 in danger of being covered with mud, fand, fliells, or fea- 

 weed, the fifliermen endeavour to keep clean by continual 

 fiftiing on them ; but thofe beds which contain a great num- 

 ber of young oyfters they fpare as much as poflible. 



The five-fingered fifti infeds thefe beds, but the oyfter- 

 fifiiers call it the ftar-fifli. A long red worm, alfo, with a great 

 number of feet, is found among thofe oyfters which are old 

 and fickly. Oyllers of three years old are accounted fit for 

 fale. The lefTee is forbidden, under the fevereft penalties, to 

 fifli up any younger. The fiftiermen muft carefully feparate 

 ' \\\t young ones from thofe which are eatable, and throw 

 them back into the beds. To be at)le to diftinguifti the three 

 years old oyfters, itisneceftary to be well acquainted with the 



oyfter-bed were "^ormerly oflered up in the church of Hufum ; but this 

 has been omitted for feveral years paft, becaufe the owner rtfufed to allow 

 the clergyman about two hundred oyfters, which he claimed for performing 

 that dniy. 



beds 



