OSTREA. 



rieties. They inhabit European and In- 

 dian seas, affixed to rocks, or in large 

 beds ; the fish is well known as a palata- 

 ble and nutritious food. The shell is of 

 various sizes, forms, and colours ; within 

 white, and often glossy like mother of 

 pearl ; the old shells have often an ano- 

 mia fixed to them, and are frequently co- 

 vered with serpulx, lepades, sertularia, 

 and other marine productions. The fol- 

 lowing- account has been given by Dr. 

 Sprat of the treatment of oysters, in Great 

 Britain. 



In the month of May the oysters cast 

 their spawn, (which the dredgers call 

 their spats), it is like to a drop of a can- 

 dle, and about the bigness of a halfpenny. 

 The spat cleaves to stones, old oyster- 

 shells, pieces of wood, and such like 

 things, at the bottom of the sea, which 

 they call cultch. It is probably conjec- 

 tured, that the spat in twenty-four hours 

 begins to have a shell. In the month of 

 May, the dredgers (by the law of the Ad- 

 miralty Court) have liberty to catch all 

 manner of oysters, of what size soever. 

 When they have taken them, with a knife 

 they gently raise the small brood from the 

 cultch, and then they throw the cultch 

 in again, to preserve the ground for the 

 future, unless they be so newly spat that 

 they cannot be safely severed from the 

 cultch ; in that case they are permitted 

 to take the stone, or shell, &c. that the 

 spat is upon, one shell having many times 

 twenty spats. After the month of May, 

 it is a felony to carry away the cultch, and 



Eunishable to take any other oysters, un- 

 iss it be those of that size (that is to say) 

 about the bigness of a half-crown piece, 

 or when, the two shells being shut, a fair 

 shilling will rattle between them. The 

 places where the oysters are chiefly 

 catched, are called the Pont Burnham, 

 Maiden, and Colne Waters ; the latter 

 taking its name from the river of Colne, 

 which passeth by Colne Chester, gives 

 the name to that town, and runs into a 

 creek of the sea at a place called the 

 Hythe, being the suburbs of the town. 

 This brood and other oysters they carry 

 to creeks of the sea, at Brickel Sea, Mer- 

 sey, Langno, Fingrego, Wivenho, Toles- 

 bury, and Saltcoase, and there throw them 

 into the channel, which they call their 

 beds or layers, where they grow and fat- 

 ten, and in two or three years the small- 

 est brood will be oysters of the size afore- 

 said. 



Those oysters which they would have 

 green, they put into pits about three feet 

 deep, in the salt marshes, which are over- 



flowed only at spring tides, to which they 

 have sluices, and let in the salt water un- 

 til it is about a foot and a half deep. These 

 pits, from some quality in the soil co-ope- 

 rating with the heat of the sun, will be- 

 come green, and communicate their co- 

 lour to the oysters that are pvit into them, 

 in four or five days : though they com- 

 monly let them continue there six weeks 

 or two months, in which time they will 

 be of a dark green. To prove that the 

 sun operates in the greening, Tolesbury 

 pits will green only in summer; but 

 that the earth hath the greater power, 

 Brickel Sea pits green both winter and 

 summer ; and for a further proof, a pit 

 within a foot of a greening pit will not 

 green ; and those that did green very 

 well, will in time lose their quality. 



The oysters, when the tide comes in, 

 lie with their hollow shell downwards, and 

 when it goes out they turn on the other 

 side ; they remove not from their place, 

 unless in cold weather, to cover them- 

 selves in the ouse. The reason of the 

 scarcity of oysters, and consequently of 

 their dearness, is, because they are of late 

 years bought up by the Dutch. 



There are great penalties, by the Ad- 

 miralty Court, laid upon those that fish 

 out of those grounds which the court ap- 

 points, or that destroy the cultch, or that 

 take any oysters that are not of size, or 

 that do not tread under their feet, or 

 throw upon the shore, a fish which they 

 call a five-finger, resembling a spur-rowel, 

 because that fish gets into the oysters 

 when they gape, and sucks them out. 

 The reason why such a penalty is set 

 upon any that shall destroy the cultch is, 

 because they find that, if that be taken 

 away, the ouse will increase, and the 

 muscles and cockles will breed there, and 

 destroy the oysters, they having not 

 whereon to stick their spat. The oysters 

 are sick after they have spat ; but in June 

 and July they begin to mend, and in Au- 

 gust they are perfectly well ; the male 

 oyster is black-sick, having a black sub- 

 stance in the fin ; the female white-sick 

 (as they term it) having a milky substance 

 in the fin. They are salt in the pits, salt- 

 er in the layers, but salter at sea. 



O. Virginica. Shell nearly equi-valve, 

 thick, rough and lamellous, one valve 

 with a prominent beak, colour whitish or 

 ochraceous, polished white within: length 

 about 9 inches, breadth about 4 inches. 



This is the shell emphatically called 

 " oyster" in the markets of the different 

 towns in the United States. The animal 

 is in high esteem as a delicious and nu- 



