£23 OSTREA. OYSTER. Class VI. 



* 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 

 4 shell, &c. that the spat is upon, one shell 

 ' having many times twenty spats. 



' After the month of May, it is felony to 

 6 carry away the cultch, and punishable to take 



- any other oysters, unless it be those of size, 

 c (that is to say) about the bigness of an half- 

 1 crown piece, or when the two shells being 

 c shut, a fair shilling will rattle between them. 



' The places where these oysters are chiefly 

 c catcht, are called the Pont- Burn ham, Mal- 

 1 den, and Colne waters; the latter taking its 

 e name from the river of Colne, which passeth 

 ' by Colne-Chester, gives the name to that 

 4 town, and runs into a creek of the sea, at a 

 ' place called the Hythe, being the suburbs of 

 1 the town. 



' This brood and other oysters they carry to 



- creeks of the sea, at Brickel-Sea, Mersey, 

 1 Langno, Fingi^ego, Wvoenho, Tolesbury, and 



* Saltcoase, and there throw them into the 

 ' channel, which they call their beds or layers, 

 ( where they grow and fatten, and in two or 



* three years the smallest brood will be oysters ' 



* of the size aforesaid. 



' Those oysters which they would have green, 



