S6 TBj; OYSTEE. 



sufficiently marked out and known as such ; and even 

 the attempt to take either oysters or oyster brood from 

 such an oyster bed, though none be actually distui'bed, 

 is a misdemeanor, punishable by fine or imprisonment, 

 or both, though nothing is to prevent the fishing for 

 floating fish within the limits of any oj'ster fishery. 



The Admiralt}' Court also imposes great penalties 

 upon those who do not destroy a fish, which they call 

 Fivefingers (the crossfish, or common starfish of our 

 coasts), because it is supposed that that fish gets into the 

 oysters when they gape, and sucks them out. That it 

 is injuiious to oyster beds may be true ; for its food, in 

 part, consists of moUusks. It does not, however, walk 

 into the oyster bodily, as the Admiralty Court suggests, 

 but rather appears to overpower its prey by applying 

 some poisonous secretion, and pouting out the lobes of 

 the stomach, so as to convert them into a kind of pro- 

 boscis, and thus suck the moUusks from their shells. 



The reason of the penalty for destroying the cultch is 

 that the ouse then will increase, and mussels and cockles 

 will breed there and destroy the oysters, because they 

 have no convenience for depositing their spat. Hence, 

 mud and sea-weeds are extremely injurious to the 

 *' breedy creatures' " propagation and increase ; for no 

 less than starfish, cockles, and mussels, other enemies 

 amongst shellfish and crustaceous animals, particularly 

 crabs and scollops, eagerly devour the oyster, when they 

 can capture it. 



In America, where the quality of the native oyster, 

 though little inferior to the larger species of Britain, is 

 greatly over-rated, the legislature is now called upon to 



