THE OTSTEfi. 25 



comers, as one of the most welcome accessories to the 

 table of rich and poor, and has been protected in his 

 rights and immunities by various Acts of Parliament. 

 *'In the month of May oysters cast their spawn," says 

 an old writer in the '' Transactions of the Eoyal Society," 

 *' which the di^edgers call spat, and this spawn cleaves 

 to stones, old oyster-shells, pieces of wood, and other 

 substances at the bottom of the sea, which is called 

 cultch. Duiing that month, by the law of the Admiralty 

 Coiu't, the dredgers have liberty to take every kind of 

 oyster, whatsoever be its size. When they have taken 

 them they gently raise with a knife the small brood 

 from the cultch, and then they throw the cultch in 

 again, to preserve the ground for the fiiture, unless they 

 are so newly spat, that they cannot be safely severed 

 from the cultch, in which case they are permitted tc 

 take the stone or shell, which the spat is upon, one shell 

 having often twenty spats. After the month of May, it 

 is felony to carry away the cultch, and punishable to 

 take any other oysters except those of the size of a half- 

 crown piece, or such as when the two shells are shut will 

 admit of a shilling to rattle between them." These 

 brood and other oysters are carried to creeks of the sea, 

 and thrown into the channel, which are called their 

 beds or layers, where they grow and fatten, and in two 

 or three years oysters of the smallest brood reach the 

 standard size. 



The property in oyster beds is defined by the 7 & 8 

 George lY., c. 29, s. 36, which makes it larceny for 

 any person to steal any oyster or oyster brood from any 

 oyster bed belonging to another person, if such bed is 



c 



