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ness of a halfpenny. The spat cleaves to stones, old oyster-shells, Jpieces of wood, and such like things, at the ^bottom of the sea,which they call clutch. It is probably conjectured, that the spatin 24 hours begins to have a shell. In May, the dredgers (by theJaw of the admiralty-court) have liberty to catch all oysters, ofwhat size soever. When they have taken them, with a knife theygently raise the small brood from the clutch, and then they throwthe clutch in again, to preserve the ground for the future, unlessthey be so newly spat, that they cannot be safely severed from theclutch; in that case they are permitted to take the stone or shell,&c. that the spat is upon, one shell having many times 20 spats.After May, it is felony to carry away the clutch, and punishableto take any other oysters, unless it be those of size, (that is to say)about the bigness of an half-crown piece, or when, the two shellsbeing shut, a fair shilling will rattle between them. The placeswhere these oysters are chiefly caught, are called the Pent-Burn-ham, Malden, and Colne waters ; the latter taking its name fromthe Colne, which passes by Colchester and gives name to thattown. (See Colmk.) This brood and other oysters they carry 7 tothe creeks of the sea, at Brickelsea, Mersy, Languo, Eingrego,Wivenho, Tolesbury, aud Saltcoast, and there throw them intothe channel, which they call their beds or layers, where theygrow and fatten ; and in two or three years the smallest brood willbe oysters of the size aforesaid. Those oysters which they wouldhave green, they put into pits about three feet deep in the salt-marshes which are overflowed only at spring-tides, to which theyhave sluices, and let out the salt-water until it is about a foot anilhalt deep. These pits, from some quality in the soil co-operatingwith the heat of the sun, will become green, and communicatetheir colour to the oysters that are put into them in four or fivedays, though they commonly let them continue there six weeksor two months, in which time they will be of a dark green. Toprove that the sun operates in the greening. Tolesbury pits willgreen only in summer; but yet the earth hath the greater power.Brickelsea pits green both winter and summer: and for a furtherproof, a pit withiu a foot of a greening-pit will not green ; andthose that did green very well, will in time lose their quality,i'he oysters, when the tide comes in, lie with their hollowshell downwards ; and when it goes out, they turn on the otherside : they remove not from their place, unless in cold weather,to cover themselves in the ouse. The reason of the scarcity ofoysters, and consequently of their dearness; is, because they are oflate years bought up by the Dutch. There are great penalties bvthe admiralty-court laid upon those that fish out of those groundswhich the court appoints, or that destroy the clutch, or that lakeany oysters that are not of size, or that do not tread under theirfeet, or throw ' e shore, a fish which they call a five finger,

resembling a spur-rowl, because that fish gets into the oysterswhen they gape, and sucks them out. The reason that such a pe-nalty is set upon any that shall destroy the clutch, is because theyfind that if that be taken away, the ouse will increase, and themuscles and cockles will breed there, and destroy the oysters,they having not whereon to stick their spat. The oysters are sickafter they have spat; hut in June and July they begin to mend,and in August they are perfectly well: the male oyster is blacksick, having a black substance in the fin; the. female white sick (asthey term it), having a milky substauce in the fin. They are salt inthe pits, salter in the layers, but saltest atsea.” The oyster affordsthe curious in microscopic observations a very pleasing entertain-ment. In the clear liquor many little round living animalculeshave been found, whose bodies being conjoined, form sphericalfigures with tails, not changing their place otherwise than bv sink-mg to the bottom, as being heavier than tile tluid ; these haveheen seen frequently separating, and then coming together again.In other oysters, animalcules of the same kind were found, notconjoined, but swimming by one another, whence they seemedhi a more perfect state, and were judged by Mr. Leeuwenhoek tohe the animalcules in the roe or semen of the oyster. A femaleoyster being opened, incredible multitudes of small embryo oy-sters were seen, covered with little shells, perfectly transparent,mid swimming along slowly in the liquor; and in another female,ttie young ones were found of a browner colour, and without anvappearance ot life or motion. M. Joblot also kept the water run-ning Ironi oysters three days, and it appeared full of young oy-aters swimming about nimbly in it; these incieased in size daily ;

but a mixture of wine, or the vapour of vinegar, killed them. InAugust ovsters are supposed to breed, because young ones are thenfound in them. Mr. Leeuwenhoek , on the 4th of August, openedan oyster, and took out of it a prodigious number of minute oy-sters all alive, and swimming nimbly about in the liquor, bymeans of certain exceedingly small organs, extending a little waybeyond their shells ; and these he calls their beards. In these lit-tle oysters, he could discover,the joinings of the shells; and per-ceived that there were some dead ones, with their shells gaping.These, though so extremely minute, are seen to he as like thelarge oysters in form as one egg is to another. As to the size ofthem, he computes that 120 of them in a row would extend aninch; and consequently, that a globular body, whose diameter isan inch, would, if they were also round, be equal to 1,728,000 ofthem. lie reckons 3000 or 4000 are in one oyster, and foundmany of the embryo oysters among the beards; some fastenedthereto by slender filaments, and others lying loose : he likewisefound animalcules in the liquor 500 times less than the embryooysters.

OSTRICH. See StRuthjo.

OSTROGOZSK, a town of Russia, in Voronez ; 40 miles S.of Voronez . Lon, 39. 11. E. Lat. 51. 0. N.

OSTROV, a town of Russia, in Pskov , on theVelika. Lori.30. 4.3. K. Lat. 57. 20. N.

OSTUNI, a town of Naples, in Otranto , 16 miles N. W. ofBrindici, and 24 N. E. of Torento. Lon. 17. 49. E. Lat. 49,59. N.

OSWALD, St. the first Christian king of Northumberland ,during the Heptarchy. He totally defeated Cadwall, the British monarch, at the village named from him St. Oswald, but was af-terwards defeated and killed by Benda, King of Mercia, at Os-westry , on the 5th Aug. 642.

OS’W EGA'TCI1Y, alakeand river of New York . The lat-ter runs into the St. Lawrence, in Lon. 75. 28. W. Lat.44.43. N.

OSWEGO, a fort of North America , on the S. side of the lake'Ontario . Lon. 70. 35. W. Lat. 45. 15. N.

Oswego, a town and fort of New York, on theE. coast of lakeOntario . Lon. 76. 36. W. Lat. 43. 22. N.

OSWEICZKN, or OSW E1ZEN, a town of Poland , in Cra-covia, 15 miles S'. W. of Cracus. Lon. 19. 47. E. Lat '>01. N.

OSWESTRY, an ancient town of England in Salop , 172miles N. W : . of London . Lon. 3. 3. W. Lat. 52. 52. N.

OSYMANDES, or OSYMANDYAS, a famous king ofEgypt , who, according to some authors, was the first monarchwho collected a great number of books for the purpose of forming'a library. To this curious collection he gave the title of Phar-macy of {lie Soul.

OSYRIS, Poet’s Cassia ; in botany, a genus of plants, of theclass dicecia, and order Uiandria. Calyx trifid ; corolla none :female, stigma roundish; drupe '.one-celled. J’here are two spe-cies. 1

OTABALO, a province of S. America, in Quito . The landsare chiefly laid out in plantations of corn, sugar-canes, &c. Thenative Indians are very industrious, both in manufactures andagriculture. They sow wheat and barley in furrows, putting thegrains into small holes, which, though a tedious method, is amply-repaid by the produce. They manufacture cottons, carpets, pa-vilions, quilts, damasks, fee. of various colours. Horses, blackcattle, and sheep, abound, and great quantities of cheese aremade.

Otabai.o, the capital of the above province, is a large city,and contains about 20,000 souls, among whom are many Spa-niards.

OTACOUSTIC, or AURICULAR TURK, [»«* andan instrument to facilitate the hearing. See Acoustics. ’

OTAHA, one of the Society Islands , in the South Sea.

OTAIiEITE, a celebrated island of the South Sea, dis-covered by Captain Wallis in 1767; visited in 176S, by Mr.Bougainville; and by Captain Cook in 1773 and 1774, who hadin 1769 sailed round the island in a boat to observe the transit ofVenus. Lon. from 149- 13. to 150.0. W. Lat. from 17. 30. to17. 48. N. The island consists of two distinct kingdoms, whichare united by a narrow neck of land; the larger being called bv