220 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



mind that we are in French waters, and, therefore, a dif- 

 ferent and a sadder fate awaits the poor mollusc an evil 

 destiny, to which, in comparison, its destruction by any one 

 of its natural enemies is a mercy. What the nature of that 

 fate is you shall learn, and, in order that the information 

 may not be suspected to emanate from motives of national 

 prejudice, I will give it you in the words of that distin- 

 guished French Naturalist, M. Moquin Tandon. 



" Every quadruped and every bird, even if it find not a 

 friend in man, yet has a protector from the cruelty of man 

 in the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. 

 Perhaps it is that this admirable society finds that it has as 

 much as it is able to do in looking after the interests of the 

 terrestrial, without searching the world of the sea for fit 

 objects over which to extend its protecting arm ; or it may 

 be that the sufferings of the denizens of the sea, who have 

 the misfortune to fall into the hands of the lords of crea- 

 tion, have never been brought under the society's notice. 

 But, so far as we know, no effort has ever been made to 

 defend the marine inhabitants from the ill-treatment many 

 of them receive. Let us, for example, tell the tale of the 

 oyster's woes. 



" The dredge, with a violent wrench, tears them from 

 their native rock. Lifted from the water, they are, especi- 

 ally in France, carried to ' oyster parks ' long, canal-like 

 excavations filled with green, stagnant salt water. The 

 green matter, which makes the water all but offensive, 

 penetrates the systems of the poor molluscs compelled to 

 inhale it. The oyster under this regime fattens, and soon 

 attains that state of obesity so relished by the connoisseur, 

 but which is really the result of disease induced by the 

 unwholesome water of the park. Imagine the unspeakable 



