230 



OSTREA. OYSTER. Class VI. 



' There are great penalties, by the Admiralty 

 court, laid upon those that fish out of those 

 grounds which the court appoints, 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-jinger,* resem- 

 bling 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 August they are perfectly well : the male 

 oyster is black-sick, having a black substance 

 in the fin ; the female white-sick, (as they 

 term it) having a milky substance in the fin. 

 They are salt in the pits, salter in the layers, 

 but salter at sea.' 



To this I beg leave to join a sort of present 

 state of this article, borrowed from the 84th 



* Asterias glacialis, the common Sea Star. 



