WHAT IS AN OYSTER ? 67 



Let it not be supposed, however, that anything more 

 than a general description is given, when I say that, 

 because of the oyster's testaceous dwelling, it is distin- 

 guished from many soft bodied animals as a shelly mollusc. 

 Among these creatures a remarkable diversity prevails. 

 Great indeed, is the contrast between the coarse, rough, 

 yet finely sculptured and coloured individuals, usually 

 denominated Rock Oysters, and the sleek looking creatures 

 deposited in a barrel, bearing the name of " Burnham," 

 or "Milton," or "Colchester." But so liable are the 

 distinctive marks of these animals to change, and thence 

 to form individual varieties, that it is extremely difficult to 

 establish any brief description of the edible oyster, the 

 ostrea edulis. Not merely have the oysters of different 

 coasts their peculiarities, but every bay, estuary, harbour, 

 or space in the sea has its local vicissitudes as to the 

 supplies of food, depth of water, currents, tides, and 

 other influential causes, all of which manifestly affect the 

 the figure or the shells of this species of oyster. 



But, our oyster, a testaceous mollusc, is not to be 

 classed with fluviatile beings. 



O 



An oyster is commonly associated with a river : with 

 the Mersey, which rises in Yorkshire from different sources, 

 in Clough Moss and Holme Moss ; the Swale, which 

 divides the Isle of Sheppy from the rest of Kent ; and the 

 Colne, which flows in the neighbourhood of Colchester. 

 The term " natives," so familiar throughout the country, 

 also sustains the idea that the oyster is derived from raw- 

 water. In this, however, there is a popular error ; no river 

 on the face of the earth provides for the production of this 

 delicacy. It is undoubtedly of marine origin. 



In the islands of the west, it is evident that the early 



voyagers were not such fabricators of stories as they have 



c 2 



