IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND FRANCE. 

 Fier. 23. 



39 



and answer admirably ; a weed bed is chosen, a considerable part 

 of which is dry at low spring tides. Upon this stacks of tiles 

 laid crosswise, one tier above another, until they reach some 

 three or four feet in height are erected and secured by stakes 

 from injury by the run of the tide. About these the weed is hoed 

 closely down, and the oysters are laid. When the spat rises it 

 drifts under the tiles, and the under side being almost always 

 clean, more or less spat adheres to it. If the top side of the tiles 

 is sufficiently clean, as many will adhere to that also. Hundreds 

 of tiles may be seen completely crusted over with oysters, as 

 many as two or three hundred being fixed to one tile, so that 

 hardly a portion of the tile is visible (see cuts of tiles covered 

 with oysters, figs. 24 and 25). These stacks of tiles are erected 

 about every twenty yards or so, the tops of the stacks being often 

 protected by a thick planking, which is pitched on the under side, 

 and is thickly strewn with shells of mussels, cockles, &c, which 

 adhere to the pitch and receive a share of the spat. This cover- 



Fie 24. 



