CHAPTER IV. 



WHAT IS AN OYSTER? 



THE OYSTER NOT A FISH A MOLLUSC DESCRIBED THE OYSTER 

 NOT A FLUVIATILE CREATURE OYSTERS WHICH GROW ON 

 TREES MARINE RANGE OF THE OYSTER ANSWER TO THE 

 QUESTION FIRST PROPOSED. 



IN England, " oyster" (formerly " oister" and in Cornwall 

 "estren") Germany, " auster," France, " huitre," Holland, 

 "oester," Sweden, "ostra," Denmark, " oster," Russia, 

 "ystritz," Spain, "ostra," Italy, "ostrega," or " ostrica." 



The oyster is a classical character ; and its praises 

 have been said or sung by innumerable writers from 

 Aristotle to "Professor" Blezard. It furnished Shakes- 

 peare with many a playful allusion ; and the philosophical 

 question which he makes the fool ask of Lear, as to the 

 mode of constructing its shell, would be difficult for the 

 best conchologist to answer satisfactorily. It has even been 

 celebrated in pastoral verse. Sannazzaro, an eccentric 

 Italian writer of the last century, changed the scene in this 

 kind of poetry from woods and lawns to the barren beach 

 and boundless ocean, introducing sea-calves in the room of 

 kids and lambs, seamews for the lark and the linnet, and 

 presenting his mistress with oysters instead of fruits and 

 flowers. There is no lack of gossip on the subject. 



