rind of the twigs composing the hurdles was
darkest in colour, there the oysters were
invariably the thickest, but where the bark
had been peeled off, or where the substance
of the wood was exposed by the splitting
of the sticks, there were no oysters to be
found. The spat, filmy and unsubstantial as it
is, seems to possess instinct to select one locality
rather than another. They have floated away
without attaching themselves through four trays
or troughs connected by a pipe, and then
clustered thickly on the sides of the fifth. In this,
too, they have fastened themselves above the
surface of the water along one side of the tray
where they can only obtain moisture by capillary
attraction. Though generally selecting
positions where the water is calm and
undisturbed, they are found thickly encrusted under
the full weight and turmoil of the stream from
a delivery-pipe. In hard frosts oysters die in
thousands under ten or twelve feet depth of
running water, yet the brood on the side of
the tray, though literally frozen up in ice and
crusted over by it, was not injured in the
slightest degree.

The French Ministry of Marine grants to
private individuals small areas of foreshore for
the formation of artificial spawning-beds;
desiring, as far as practicable, that every
individual dwelling on the coast may, if he
pleases, possess his own private oyster park.
In the view of the French government large
companies create monopolies, and, by means of
their capital, are enabled to carry off the oysters
from the natural beds wherever they may be
found, to fatten them upon their own. Recent
legislation in England encourages the formation
of oyster nurseries by individuals as well
as by companies. The management and control
of the foreshores, or tidal waters between high
and low water mark, have been transferred
from the administration of the Woods and
Forests to the Board of Trade. This board
has refused several applications made by public
companies, on the ground that the allotments
sought were far too large, and the appropriation
of so large an extent would be detrimental
to public interests. On the other hand, they
have uniformly granted limited areas to individual
claimants. Owners of small tracts of
shore, or tenants whose holdings border on the
sea, may find most interesting amusement, and
probably some profit, by forming miniature
oyster-beds of tneir own. It is only necessary
to clear from weeds some sandy or shelly nook
among the rocks, to place half a dozen hurdles,
which can be bought for sevenpence each, and
to place under them three or four hundred
oysters in the months of May or June. The
results of such experiments might prove to be
of national importance. Some years since the
possessor of an oyster-bed could hardly be said
to possess any protection for his property. If
a thief were caught in the act of taking
oysters from a bed, he was punished by fine
or imprisonment; but if he managed to get
clear off the bed, by merely five yards, no
man had a right to question him, though he
were laden with oysters. But oyster-beds now
are protected by law as strictly as game on an
estate, and a delinquent must account for his
possession of oysters as of partridges or
pheasants. The immense extent of foreshore now
unproductive, the beds of rivers, lakes in
harbours, and lagoons of the sea, might all be
made remunerative to the proprietors and
advantageous to the public. Fishery science can
hardly be considered to have advanced
satisfactorily so long as oysters cannot be purchased
for less than six pounds the bushel, and one
shilling and eightpence the dozen.

THE SPIRIT OF FICTION.

SOME people have an extraordinary feeling in
regard to works of fiction; they think it sinful
either to write or to read them. Mr. Campbell,
the celebrated collector of Caledonian Tales,
testifies to the existence of this feeling on the
part of certain travellers in Scotland with whom
he became acquainted. He tells us that there
are some "worthy pedagogues in the
Highlands" who "object to old stories told by
peasants, because they are fictions, and not
historically true." Mr. Campbell adds, "I
have repeatedly met men who look on the
telling of these tales as someihing almost wicked."
He likewise remarks that something of the
same sentiment arose in the mind of Herodotus
when listening to the legends of Egypt.
Nevertheless, Herodotus thought it not wrong to
write them down, warning, however, his reader
that he must determine for himself with respect
to the credibility of what the historian had
related. Many of these stories have become
sacred traditions, and doubtless many of these
fictions have been mistaken for facts. Not a
few are supposed to belong to a pre-historic
age. On all hands, a moral value, whether for
good or evil, has been given to various myths
of which the origin is unknown. The latest
theory of them is, that they formed the oral
literature of the Aryan race, who carried them
into the various countries that they visited in
their migrations, and that afterwards the
tradtions were spontaneously modified, so as to
suit fresh persons, times, and places.

The study of these traditions is as entertaining
as it is interesting and instructive. It is
curious to find in a wild and simple Scotch or
Norse tale what appears a repetition of some
incident in Homer, or Hesiod, or Herodotus,
but which really is due to some antecedent
source, and subsequently became the common
property of the Egyptian, the Greek, the
Roman, the Norseman, and the Gael. But the
variations are as remarkable as the resemblances,
and frequently most amusing.

These objectors to tales of fiction and the
traditions of the elders would seem not to be
aware of the amount of both in what they deem
genuine history; indeed, these old fables needed
only an Herodotus or a Homer to become either
history or epic poetry. The ballads of a previous
period were worked up into the stories of