O S T 
its inhabitants and riches. It contained a great many 
monks and nuns, who, it is faid, led very irregular lives. 
“ It might have been expedted,” fays Blainville, “ that 
the gulf would have been fatisfied with the nuns and 
monks, and that it would not have carried its revenge 
further; but this was not the cafe; as a monument to 
pofterity, it threw up fuch a quantity of filth, that it pro¬ 
duced a mountain a mile in height, and four miles in cir¬ 
cumference.” 
In tropical regions, the common oyfter is found at¬ 
tached to trees; this affertion has been frequently ranked 
among groundlefs and fabulous traditions, but the fadt is 
eafil'y explained. In warm climates, where vegetation is 
very luxuriant, a great variety of plants, among which 
are large trees, grow on the fhores at the very edge of the 
fea; and particularly on thofe places which are fheltered 
from the agitation of the waves. In fuch places as the 
heads of bays and harbours, great abundance of man¬ 
grove-trees grow up from the bottom, where it is feveral 
feet deep, covered with water. It is generally on the 
mangrove-tree that the oyfter is found in the Weft Indies. 
Without the trouble of picking them from the trees, the 
branches growing under water, to which they are at¬ 
tached, are cut oft', carried home in balkets, and in this 
ftate brought to table, where they are eaten raw or roafted. 
Great Britain has long been noted for its oyfters ; and 
thefe, as the French believe, have been produced from 
oyfters formerly filbed-up in Cancale Bay, near St. Malo, 
and tranfplanted to the Englifh coaft ; but of this affertion 
we have no proof. Thofe however are moft efteemed 
which are found on the coaft: of Effex; from that coaft 
the brood is tranfplanted to the fea near Colchefter, where 
the Coin, which flows through the town, forms a great 
many arms and fmall creeks exceedingly proper for bl eed¬ 
ing them. Thefe oyfters are in high requeft, under the 
name of Colchejier oyfters. Many, however, prefer thofe 
oyfters which are colledted on the coaft of Dorfetfhire, 
and particularly thofe found near Poole. They are faid, 
alfo, to contain fometimes pearls of larger fize than thofe 
found in other places. The greater part of the Englifh 
oyfters, which the Dutch carry away every year with 
more than a hundred veffels, are fold by the fifhermen at 
Feverfham in Kent, to the north-weft of Canterbury, and 
which, like the neighbouring fmall towns of Milton and 
Middleton, is known on account of this trade. There are 
a great many oyfter-banks alfo in the Ifle of Wight; 
thofe, likewife, are well known which are found near 
Tenby, on the coaft of South Wales, and near Milford 
Haven ; but the largeft, and perhaps the worft, are thofe 
off the Black-rock, near Liverpool. 
It appears that the Englifh have taken more trouble 
than other nations, not only to maintain their oyfter- 
banks, but to form new ones. Since the year 1712, a great 
many oyfters have been found in the fmall channel or 
I’crait of Menai, which feparates Anglefey from Caernar- 
vonfhire, and where, about the year 1700, none were to be 
feen. It is known, however, that foon after that period 
fome perfon threw into the above channel about a hun¬ 
dred oyfters, which now extend feveral miles ; fo that at 
prefent many veffels are employed in this fifhery. 
Ireland has very abundant oyfter-banks near the village 
of Arklow, on the eaftern fide of Dublin, from which feed 
is conveyed to the artificial beds of the capita], on the 
northern fide, near Clontarf; and further fouth, at Sutton, 
not far from Howth. Alfo at Polebeg and Dalkey, not 
far from Dublin 5 and particularly Ireland’s Eye, where 
the largeft and beft oyfters lie at the depth of about eigh¬ 
teen or twenty fathoms under the water. Likewife to the 
north of Dublin, near Rufh and Skerries, where the oyf¬ 
ters are falter and harder than in places where more frefh 
water falls into the fea. Scotland has great abundance of 
oyfters near the ifland of Inch Keith, which is not far 
from Leith. 
From an account preferved in Sprat’s Hiftory of the 
Royal Society, from p. 307 to 309, we learn, that the 
Vol. XVIII. No. 1221. 
REA. 33 
oyfters caft their fpawn, which the dredgers call their fput, 
in the month of May ; this fpat cleaves to ftones, old 
oyfter-fhells, pieces of wood, See. at the bottom of the 
fea, which they call cultch ; and it is conjectured, that 
the fpat in twenty-four hours begins to have a fliell. In 
the month of May, the dredgers, by the law of the ad¬ 
miralty-court, have liberty to take every kind of oyfter, 
whatfoever be their fize. When they have taken them, 
they gently raife with a knife the fmall brood from the 
cultch, and then they throw the cultch in again, to pre- 
ferve the ground for the future, unlefs they be fo newly 
fpat that they cannot be fafely feveredTrom the cultch: 
in this cafe they are permitted to take the ftone or fhell, 
&c. which the ipat is upon, one fhell having often twenty 
fpats. After the month of May, it is felony to carry 
away the^ cultch, and puniftiable to take any other oyf¬ 
ters except thofe of the fize of a half-crown piece; or 
fuch as, when the two fhells are fhut, will admit of a 
fhilling to rattle between them. This brood, and other 
oyfters, are carried to creeks of the fea, and thrown into 
the channel, which are called their beds or layers, where 
they grow' and fatten; and in two or three years the 
fmallelt brood will become oyfters of the forefaid fize. 
There are great penalties impofed by the admiralty-court 
upon thofe that fifti out of the grounds which the court 
appoints, or that dellroy the cultch, or that take any 
oyfters that are not of the proper fize,- or that do not 
deftroy a fifli which they call the five-finger, the common 
fea-ftar, becaufe that fifli gets into the oyfters when they 
gape, and fucks them out. The reafon of the penalty for 
deitroying the cultch is, that they find, when this is taken 
away, the oufe will increafe, and the mufclesand cockles 
will breed there, and deftroy the oyfters, becaufe they 
have no convenience for depofiting their fpat. The oyf¬ 
ters are fick after they have fpat; but in June and July 
they begin to mend, and in Auguft they are perfedtly 
well: the male oyfter is black-fick, having a black fub- 
ftance in the fin ; and the female white-fick, as they term 
it, having a milky fubftance in the fin. Oyfters are fait in 
the pits, lalter in the layers, and falteft at fea. It is ob- 
ferved that, when the tide comes in, they lie with their 
hollow fhell downwards, and, when it goes out, they 
turn on the other fide; they do not remove from their 
places, except in cold weather, to cover themfelves up 
warm in the oufe. 
As to the fpawning or laying oyfter-beds, the manner 
of preparing, diftributing, and managing, them, in the 
mouths of the breeding-rivers in particular counties and 
diftridts, the exadt method of performing the bufinefs 
has not been deferibed ; but they are fpawned or laid 
fomewhat in the bed-manner. The principal rivers in the 
county of Effex where this fort of work, or that of 
breeding oyfters, is carried on, according to the Cor- 
redted Agricultural Report of that diftridt, are thofe of 
the Crouch, the Blackwater, and the Coin ; butthefirft 
is by far the moft certain in produce of any of them. The 
beds, or layings, are made in the creeks, and other fimi- 
lar places, on the fides or parts which adjoin the mouths, 
openings, or beginnings, of thefe rivers. It is from thefe 
rivers that the oyfter-layings, or beds, are ufually flocked; 
though fome are conftantly fupplied from Portfmouth, or 
places in its neighbourhood, being brought in the largeft 
fort of oyfter-veffels, not only into this county, but 
Kent, where they are laid for the enfuing feafon. The 
Colchefter oyfter-beds are chiefly at Wivenhoe, being 
partly fupplied by the Kentifli oyfter-fmacks. The beds, 
or layings, in thefe different fituations, are likew’ife, in all 
probability, fupplied or furnifhed with oyfters from feve¬ 
ral other places on the fouthern coaft of this country, as 
well as the northern one of France. 
The oyfter-fifheries, in different places, are of very great 
importance to the country at large, as well as to particu¬ 
lar counties and diftridts, efpecially that of Effex ; as they 
employ great numbers of fmall veffels,/ require the labour 
of many men, and afford confiderable profit in the pro- 
K duce 
4 
