CURIOSITIES OF OYSTERS. 



was not in contact with the ammonite, has become par- 

 tially modelled to represent it. Thus the two valves 

 together have the double impression of the ammonite, in 

 intaglio below, and in cameo above. I suspect from this 

 that Mr. Busk's oyster had grown with the lower valve 

 (which he does not possess) attached to the outer convex 

 surface of a pholas, and that the upper valve (the one in 

 question) has, in consequence, been partially modelled 

 after it. We must suppose, in these cases, that the mol- 

 lusc accommodates itself to whatever curvature is impressed 

 on the lower valve, and then the materials secreted for the 

 upper valve will necessarily follow the contour thus given 

 to the animal." 



In the Illustrated London Neivs, August 1 1, 1855, there 

 is an engraving of an old-fashioned champagne bottle, 

 taken from the wreck of the Royal George, having on it 

 four oyster-shells or lower valves, all of which are modified 

 in form by the figure of the bottle. The two more imme- 

 diately in front, instead of being concave internally, are 

 convex, moulded, in fact, by the globose body to which 

 they adhere, so that the oyster, instead of sinking into a 

 bed, must have been elevated or perched up, and conse- 

 quently covered by an arched or vaulted valve instead of a 

 flat valve, the order of things being reversed. The two 

 other shells show rather how, by the disposition of layer 

 after layer, the oyster makes the best of an unfortunate 

 attachment, than display any decided alteration of the 

 normal character of form. That lying on the base of the 

 neck of the bottle, though somewhat irregular, is fairly 

 concave, and is raised up by numerous rough external 

 layers, acting as a sort of buttress. These shells bear 

 marks of great age, the oysters having lived and died in 

 their present condition. Other shells, of different ages, 



