660 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



found at all places along the European coast where natural 

 oyster-beds exist. There are two other conditions of the 

 Baltic besides the low percentage of salt, which certainly 

 hinder the growth of the oyster the long-continued low 

 temperature of winter, and the lack of regular tidal- 

 currents, the oyster, which is a stationary animal, will 

 receive daily a greater quantity of oxygen and food in the 

 water brought to it than it will in an interior sea, where 

 the water is in less regular motion. These chemical and 

 physical differences between the North and East Seas 

 render it not only impossible for the oyster to live in the 

 latter, but also for many other North Sea animals, of which 

 I will mention only the lobster, the larger punger (platycar- 

 cinus pagurusj, and the edible sea urchin (echinus escul- 



entus) Nature has already made frequent 



efforts to introduce not only oysters, but other North Sea 

 animals, into the Baltic. Nearly every year fish and other 

 animals from the North Sea appear in the Baltic, but they 

 are not permanent, and soon disappear again from our 

 fauna. 



CONCERNING THE PRICE OF OYSTERS. 



On the 2ist of September, 1740, the first hundred 

 fresh Schleswig-Holstein oysters sold in Hamburg for 1*42 

 marks (about 35 cents) of present money. Later the same 

 day goo were sold at 1*20 marks (30 cents) s per hundred ; 

 then 3400 at 15 cents ; and finally, 10,800 at 7^ cents per 

 hundred. On the i5th of October of the same year, and 

 at the same place, the first hundred fresh, newly-arrived 

 oysters, sold for 2*40 marks ; the second hundred for 2*10 

 marks ; then 1025 were sold for i'8o marks per hundred ; 

 then 1000 at 1*50 marks; then 2000 at rzo marks; and 

 finally, 12,500 at 60 pfennige (15 cents) per hundred. 



