THE OYSTER ABROAD. 275 



9. American Oysters, though, to my taste, by no 

 means so delicate as others I have mentioned, are never- 

 theless superior for cooking. For my own part, although 

 I have stated that pepper, vinegar, lemon juice, and other 

 stimulating ingredients, are commonly made use of when 

 eating the oyster, I offer, in all courtesy, the decided 

 opinion, that the taste must be vitiated that can swallow 

 such in preference to the delicate, fresh, luscious, charm- 

 ing little morsel, saturated merely, or perhaps the word 

 ought to be merely bedewed, like the rose on a summer 

 morning, by its own liquid life's blood. Americans them- 

 selves generally prefer their large oysters even to our 

 British Natives. 



ro. Mediterranean Oysters. I have alreadv referred 



-/ J 



to classical authorities for the character the ancients gave 

 those of Circe and the Lucrine Sea ; and the old rule, " de 

 mortuis nil," forbids me to say in what rank I place 

 Horace the inimitable, Seneca the wise, and Pliny the 

 naturalist, as judges of what an oyster should be. Where 

 ignorance is bliss, people can be very happy. Till the 

 Chinese, by an accidental fire, had become acquainted with 

 the taste of roast pork, there were many less fires in China 

 than now. Till the Romans found the Rutupians, 

 the Lucrine flourished ; so did Circe. 



Thus far I have dwelt upon the qualities of the Con- 

 tinental Oyster, but now, in concluding this chapter, I 

 must introduce to the reader's notice the cultivation of the 

 oyster in the Celestial Empire. 



M. Dabry de Thersant, in a number of the " China 

 Review," as quoted in the ''Flight of the Lapwing," states 

 that artificial oyster-beds were formed in China long before 

 they are known to have existed amongst the Romans, and 

 while in Europe essays and pamphlets are being written on 



