CHAPTER XIV. 



THE OYSTER ABROAD. 



BRITISH OYSTERS IN OSTEND QUARTERS HOLSTEIN, SCHLESWIG, 



AND HELIGOLAND NATIVES NORWEGIAN AND BREMER OYSTERS 



AMERICAN OYSTERS FRENCH OYSTERS DUTCH OYSTERS 



MEDITERRANEAN OYSTERS AND CLASSICAL JUDGES CHINESE 



OYSTERS OYSTER CULTURE IN CHINA. 



I SHALL begin my list of foreign oysters with the best of 

 them all, the next of kin to our Native, and next to it the 

 best oyster in the world. 



i. The Ostend Oyster is nothing more than the real 

 British oyster, cleaned and fattened in the Ostend oyster- 

 beds. It has a fine, thin, transparent but deep shell, the 

 upper shell being quite flat ; it is very full, white, and fat, 

 has a very small beard, and is very digestible. During a 

 south-west wind, which brings to these beds the micros- 

 copic spores of sea vegetation and animalcules upon which 

 it delights to feed, from the channel, its beard is of a green 

 colour. The Ostend oyster is much prized in Berlin, which 

 it reaches the quickest of any from the sea (in thirty-six to 

 forty hours), and consequently lives there several days, 

 remains the longest fresh, and can be sent farthest. In 

 the winter of 1862. Ostend oysters were sent to Moscow 

 and Odessa, where they arrived still good and tasty. The 



