disappear.
The beds are level banks of no great depth, which are seldom or never
uncovered by the tide. The first important business, when preparing a
bed on which the oyster may spawn, or spat, as it is called, is to
sprinkle over it broken plates and pans and tiles, with empty shells and
such like substances, to which the embryo oyster immediately attaches
itself. This broken stuff is called "skultch." The oyster deposits its
spawn in July; and a month afterwards the young oysters can be seen
sticking fast to the skultch in confused clusters. Here they remain for
two or three years, until they become about the size of a shilling; they
are then taken up and spread evenly over the surface. After another
year they are once more dredged up and scattered on the beds, where they
are to remain until full-grown. Seven years are required to bring an
oyster to maturity; but many are dredged up and sold when only five
years old. The muddy shores of Essex are highly favourable to the
breeding of oysters; and those are considered very fine which are
dredged from the beds at the mouth of the river Colne.

"You see, sir," said the skipper; "oysters ain't fit to eat except in
certain months. They are only prime from October to March. In April
they begin to sicken, they are of a milky white colour, though fit
enough to look at; then they become of a dirty grey colour, and then
change to black by July, when they cast their spawn. After this it
takes them two months to get well again, and they ought to have another
month to fatten up, which brings us to October. It always makes me
angry-like when I see people eating oysters in August; but there are
poachers at all times ready to fish them up; and there would be many
more if they were not sharply looked after. It is a curious fact, that
while the beds on the coast of Kent make very good nurseries for
oysters, they do not grow as large and fat as they do on the Essex
coast. A little fresh water don't hurt them; but snow water kills them,
as it does other fish, outright. To most people, one oyster is just
like another; but there are many different sorts, and each sort has a
fancy for a particular place. The oyster gives us work for most months
in the year; for when not fishing to sell, we are either dredging up the
young oysters or laying them down again."

It is calculated that one spawn oyster produces eight hundred thousand
young; and if we suppose that of every five hu