Oo YS 
Nantuas; feven miles N. of Nantua. The place contains 
1178, and the canton 7278 eee on a territory of 
2074 kiliometres, in 11 commun 
Oo R, in Natural Hiffory. 
" See Ost 
Oyfters in their growth become faftened to iene folid fub- 
ftance which they happen to come into contaé& with; and 
rocks, {mall flones, wood, fea-plants, and a thoufand other 
things, are found at times with oyfters adhering to them, 
* whole fhells have fitted themfelves to the form of the thing 
itfelf, and loft their natural fhape. The people who fifh for, 
and trade in oyfters, pretend to soap ties two kinds; one 
which is fecund, and will breed ; the oth r, whi ch is ba rren. 
ays. 
he curious in Lika saa loa 
clear liquor 
as being heavier than the fluid; thefe have been feen 
frequently feparating, and then coming together again. In 
other oytters, ee of the {fame kind were found, not 
ae by one another, whence they 
ftate, and were judged by Mr. 
i to be the animalcules in the roe or femen of 
the oy 
male oyfter being opened, — multitudes of 
{mall sakes oytters were feen, covered with little thells, 
three days, and it appeared full of youn pee {wimming 
about nimbly in it ; thefe increafed in fize daily, but a mix- 
re of wine, or the vapour of vinegar, killed them. 
In thefe 
little ae he ool difcover the jomihgs of the ‘fhells, and 
perceived that there were fome dead ones, with their thells 
gaping. 'Thefe, though fo extremely minute, are feen to be 
like the large oyfters in form 
s to the fize of them, he computes, that a hundred and 
twenty of them in a row would extend an inch; and, confe- 
quently, that a globular body, whofe diameter is an inch, 
would, if they were alfo round, be equal to a ot feven 
hundred and twenty-eight thoufand of them wife 
found animalcules in the liquor five hundred times ‘lefs ‘than 
the embryo oyfters. Leewenhoeck, Arcan. Nat. tom. iv. 
« $33. 
‘ ot very uncommon to fee on oyfter-fhells, when in 
ace, a fhining matter or blueifh light, like a flame 
e, ee fticks to the fingers when touched, and 
continues fhining and giving light for a confiderable time, 
though without ee feniible heat. This fhining matter being 
examined with a microfcope, was found to confilt of three 
different forts of animicicuee Phil. Tranf. N° 279. See 
OvystTER-worm, infra, 
VoL. XXV. 
oO Ys 
m another account, preferved in Sprat’s Hiftory of 
the Royal Society, from p. 307 to 309, we learn that the 
oylfters caft their fpawn, which the dredgers call ce {pat, 
in the month of May ; this {pat cleaves to ftones, old oytter- 
fhells, pieces of wood, &c, at the bottom of the fea, ak 
they call cultch; and it is conjeG@ured, that the fpat in 
twenty-four hours begins to have a fhell. ‘In the month of 
between them. is 
to creeks of the fea, and cfawn into the channel, which are 
anes their beds or layers, where they grow ea fatten; and 
n two or three years the fm one brood will become oyfters 
of the forefaid fize. There are great penalties impofed by 
the admiralty court, upon thofe that fifth out of the grounds 
which the court appoints, or that deftroy the cultch, or that 
take any oyfters that are not of the roper fize, or that do 
not deftroy a fifh, which they call the five-finger, the common 
fea-ftar, becaufe that fifth gets into the oyfters when they 
gape, and fucks them out. The reafon of the penalty for 
ae the cultch is, that they find when this is taken 
away oufe will increafe, and the mufcles and cockles 
be haee there, and deftroy the oyfters, becaufe they have 
convenience for depofiting their fpat. The oyfters are 
fick after they have fpat; but in June and July they begin 
end, andin Augutt they are perfectly well: the male 
oyter is black-fick, having a black fubftance in the fin ; .a 
the female w ite-fick, as they term it, having a milky fab- 
= in the fin Oyfters are falt in the pits, falter in the 
n it goes out, they tu y do not 
remove from their ieee cece in cold weather to cover 
themfelves in the o a 
Oxster Fifkery. e Fis 
Oysrurs, Poffle. The greta ie of foffile oyfters any 
where known is that near Rea n Berkfhire ey 
have the entire fhape, es a nae of the fame (abanes 
with the recent oyfter-fhells, and yet muft have lain there for 
a long time, the cldeft hiftories that mention the place giving 
an account of them. They are extended over no fmaller a 
{pace than fix acres of ground, and juft above them there is 
a large ftratum of a greenifh loam, called by fome writers a 
green earth, and by others a green fand. It is compofed of 
a crumbly marle, and a very large portion of fand. Under 
them there is a thick ftratum of chalk. They all lie in a 
level bed, and the ftrata above the fhells are natural, and have 
never been dug through till the time of finding the thells. 
The oyfter-fhells and greenearth together make a ftratum 
of about two feet thick; and over this a mech thicker 
very good 
there lies a ftratum of a fine white fand unmixed either ee 
E the 
