RELATIVES OF THE OYSTER. 203 



time, cut away the adjoining land to such an extent, as 

 would make the whole sea- board a quagmire. 



But it is a remarkable fact, that wherever the tide 

 bends its force, its effects are counteracted by walls of 

 living oysters, which grow upon each other from the beds 

 of the rivers to the very verge of the banks. These ani- 

 mals are often found in bunches among the long grass, 

 growing upon the surface of the soil. They are in such 

 abundance, that a vessel of a hundred tons might load 

 herself in three times her own length. These banks 

 are the favourite resort of fish and birds, as well as of the 

 raccoon and some other animals, who feed on oysters 

 both by day and night. Bunches of them, sufficient to fill 

 a bushel, are found matted, as it were, together; and the 

 neighbouring inhabitants and labourers often light a fire 

 on the marsh grass, roll a bunch of oysters upon it, and 

 there enjoy these luxuries. 



Marvellous is the difference between death and life. 

 It is a fact open to general observation, that all the coasts 

 of the land composed of mineral substances, dead shells, 

 or other animal or vegetable productions in which life is 

 extinct, are habitually wetted by the ocean waters. But it 

 is not so palpable, except to the student of nature, that no 

 production of the sea, or of any other water, is thus wetted 

 while it continues in the living state. Vitality, and vitality 

 alone, produces this difference. It occurs in all waters, 

 indeed, however soft and limpid they may be, or however 

 mixed with saline and other active substances ; and the 

 more such substances exist in the composition of any 

 water, whether of the sea or of any other collection, the 

 more completely are the living inhabitants of that water, 

 whether vegetable or animal, protected against its action. 



