Class VI. OSTREA. OYSTER. 227 



brought to convenient places, where they im- 

 prove in taste and size. It is an error to sup- 

 pose, that the fine green observed in oysters 

 taken from artificial beds, is owing to copperas; 

 it being notorious how destructive the sub- 

 stance or the solution of it is to all fish. I 

 cannot give a better account of the cause, or 

 of the whole treatment of oysters, than what is 

 preserved in the learned Bishop Sprat's History 

 of the Royal Society, from p. 307 to 309. 



c In the month of May the oysters cast their 

 1 spaun, (which the dredgers call their spats;) 

 1 it is like to a drop of candle, 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 

 i cultch. 



' Tis probably conjectured, that the spat in 

 ' twenty-four hours begins to have a shell. 



' In the month of May, the dredgers (by the 

 ' law of the Admiralty court) have liberty to 

 ' catch all manner of oysters, of what size 

 ' soever. 



1 When they have taken them, with a knife 

 J they gently raise the small brood from the 

 I cultch, and then they throw the cultch in 

 ; again, to preserve the ground for the future, 



q 2 



