34 



OYSTER-BEDS. 



maritime counties, even as far as Scotland, and laid in the 

 beds or layings in the creeks adjoining those rivers. The 

 number of vessels immediately employed in the dredging for 

 oysters are about 200, from twelve to forty or fifty tons bur- 

 den each, employing from 400 to 500 men and boys. The 

 quantity of oysters bred and taken and consumed annually, 

 mostly in London, is supposed to amount to 14,000 or 15,000 

 bushels. All the other fisheries connected with this part of 

 the coast are stated to employ a capital supposed to amount 

 from 60,000/. to 80,000/." In various parts of Milford Haven 

 there are likewise inexhaustible beds of oysters, of superior 

 excellence.* But so important are the oyster-fisheries of 

 Britain, that they have long been an object of attention to the 

 Legislature ; and they are regulated by a Court of Admiralty. 

 In 1875 (Edward III.) it was illegal to dredge for oysters or 

 mussels between May and Holyrood day, the 14th of Sep- 

 tember ; or to keep the fry of those fish in any season, -j- In 

 the month of May, the fishermen are allowed to take the 

 oysters, in order to separate the spawn from the cultch } % the 

 latter of which is thrown back, to preserve the bed for the 

 future. After this month it is felony to carry away the 

 cultch, and punishable to take any oyster, unless, when 

 closed, a shilling will rattle between its valves. The spawn 

 is then deposited in beds or layers formed for the purpose, 

 and furnished with sluices, through which, at the springtides, 

 the water is suffered to flow. This water, being stagnant, 

 soon becomes green in warm weather ; and, in a short time, 

 the oysters acquire the same tinge, which renders them of 

 greater value in the market. Three years, at least, are re- 

 quired to bring them to a marketable state ; and the longer 

 they remain, the more fat and delicate they become. § These 

 artificial beds, as Pliny informs us, were invented by one Ser- 

 gius Arata, and first established on the Lucrine Lake, a. u. 

 660 ; and, from some circumstances mentioned by the natura- 

 list, we may infer that the said Sergius was no loser by the 



* Encyclop. Brit. Supp. iv. 269, 270. 



t Nicolas's Hist. Roy. Navy, ii. 205. 



J By this term are meant the stones, gravel, old shells, &c, to which the 

 spawn adheres ; and the reason for punishing its destruction is, that, when 

 taken away, the ooze increases, and mussels and cockles breed on the bed, 

 and destroy the oysters, gradually occupying all the places on which the 

 spawn should be cast. 



§ See Sprat's Hist. Roy. Soc. 308 ; Pennant's Brit. Zoology, iv. 227, 

 &c. ; Bingley's Animal Biography, art. Oyster ; Thomson's Annals of 

 Philosophy for January, 1818, 70; and the Brit. Cyclop. Nat. Hist. iii. 

 381. — M. Carbonnel received a patent for a new and simple method of 

 establishing oyster-banks on the coasts of France, of which there is a short 

 account in Chenu's Traite dc Conch yliologie, p. 111. 



