Page:History of the Royal Society.djvu/333

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the Month of May the Oysters cast their Spawn (which the Dredgers call their Spat); it is like to a drop of Candle, and about the bigness of an half- penny.

The Spat cleaves to Stones, old Oyster-shells, pieces of Wood, and such like things, at the bottom of the Sea, which they call Cultch.

'Tis probably conjectur'd, 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.

When they have taken them, with a knife they gently raise the small brood from the Cultch, and then they throw the Cultch in again, to preserve the ground for the future, 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 shell, &c. that the Spat is upon, one shell having many times twenty Spats.

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