340 WHERE THE SPAWN GOES. [CHAP. vm. 



the points of a hair, swim actively about, in great numbers, 

 as many as a thousand having been counted in a very minute 

 globule of spat. The spawn, as found floating on the water, 

 is greenish in appearance, and each little splash may be 

 likened to an oyster nebula, which resolves itself, when 

 examined by a powerful glass, into a thousand distinct 

 animals. 



The oyster, it is now pretty well determined, is herma- 

 phrodite, and it is very prolific, as has been already observed, 

 but the enormous fecundity of the animal is largely detracted 

 from by bad breeding seasons ; for, unless the spawning 

 season be mild, soft, and warm, there is usually a very par- 

 tial fall of spat, and of course quite a scarcity of brood ; and 

 even if one be the proprietor of a large bed of oysters, there is 

 no security for the spawn which is emitted from the oysters 

 on that bed falling upon it, or within the bounds of one's own 

 property even ; it is often enough the' case that the spawn falls 

 at a considerable distance from the place where it has been 

 emitted. Thus the spawn from the Whitstable and Faversham 

 Oyster Companies' beds and these contain millions of oysters 

 in various stages of progress falls usually on a large piece of 

 ground between Whitstable and the Isle of Thanet, formerly 

 common property, but lately given by Act of Parliament to a 

 company recently formed for the breeding of oysters. The 

 saving of the spawn cannot be effected unless it falls on pro- 

 per ground i. e. ground with a shelly bottom is best, for the 

 infant animal is sure to perish if it fall among mud or upon 

 sand ; the infant oyster must obtain a holding-on place as the 

 first condition of its own existence. 



Oysters have not on the aggregate spawned extensively 

 during late years. The greatest fall of spawn ever known in 

 England occurred in 1827, and it is thought by practical men, 

 as well as naturalists, that they do not spawn at all in cold 

 seasons, and in Britain not always in warm seasons ; and Mr. 



