200 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



According to M. Quatrefages, the shell-mounds of St. 

 Michel-en-1'Herm are composed of oyster, mussel, and 

 scallop shells, of the same species as those living now in 

 the neighbouring seas. Many of them have their valves 

 still connected by the ligament which forms the hinge, and 

 they have not even changed colour. The three banks of 

 St. Michel-en-1'Herm are about seven hundred and thirty 

 yards in length, three hundred in width, and rise about 

 ten to fifteen yards above the level of the surrounding 

 marshes. 



Buckland mentions a large heap of oyster-shells in 

 Galway Bay, at a place called Creggauns ; another south- 

 west of Tyrone, and one at Ardfry Point. The Creggauns 

 heap consists principally of the shells of the oyster, mussel, 

 and common cockle, though the whelk, Pecten varius peri- 

 winkle, limpet, Nassa reticulata, Helix nemoralis, Trochus, 

 and Vemrupis decussata (Tapes decussata ?J, are also found 

 in it. There are layers of wood-ashes and stones, appa- 

 rently used as hearth-stones, showing the marks of having 

 been subjected to fire, but no weapons. The heap occu- 

 pies an irregular space of two hundred feet long and sixty 

 feet wide, and ranges from six to eight feet deep. There 

 are various traditions as to the age of the heaps, and it is 

 said that ninety years ago a series of high tides cast up the 

 heap of shells from adjoining beds, (g} 



In an old kitchen-midden, in the Andaman Islands, 

 close to the landing-place at Homfray's Ghat, Mount 

 Augusta, the valves of oysters Arcidae and Cyrenidae are 

 found in abundance ; but the present race of Andamanese 

 are stated by the author of " Jungle Life in India " not to 

 eat oysters, which suggests the idea that possibly there 



(g) "Field," February 4th, 1865. 



