THE OYSTER ABROAD. 271 



former were seventeen days, and the latter eleven days on 

 their way. Scarcely any other kind of oysters could be 

 sent to such a distance. In the autumn of 1847, after the 

 opening of the Cologne-Minden Railway, the first trial was 

 made of sending these oysters to Berlin, via Cologne. The 

 result was most satisfactory : they sold for i^ thalers (5/3) 

 the hundred. This caused no little sensation, especially 

 among the old oyster dealers, who were accustomed to 

 receive from five to six, even from eight to nine thalers 

 per hundred. The good folks of Berlin are now supplied 

 with abundant fresh and fine oysters. The Ostend natives 

 may be obtained from the owner of the oyster-beds in 

 Ostend. I speak of Berlin, as the Germans are great 

 oyster-eaters, and the North, in a great measure, is sup- 

 plied from thence. 



In Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, and Lille, 

 Ostend oysters are eaten with slices of home-baked bread 

 and butter. They are served up in their shells, open, and 

 not broken apart. They have a tender, fragrant, and 

 melting flesh, and are only half the size of ordinary 

 oysters ; but they gain in thickness what they lose in size. 

 In Flanders and the Netherlands they are known under the 



J 



name of " English Oysters," but are called in Paris after 

 the name of the beds where they are reared. They are in 

 reality Edinburgh " Natives," cleaned and fattened in the 

 Ostend oyster-beds, and hence called Belgian or Ostend 

 oysters. 



The oyster of Ostend cannot be too much recom- 

 mended to gourmets. It is to the common oyster what a 

 chicken is to an old hen. It is a draught of bitter ale to 

 a thirsty palate. It is a known fact, that after having 

 abstained from food for a long time, the first oyster one 

 eats produces a kind of unusual rictus (or opening of the 



