PERILS OF THE OYSTER. 2iy 



rocky bed, is free from all appearance of intruding on the 

 comfort, much less the lives, of creatures in its neighbour- 

 hood ; it might be taken, indeed, as the very symbol of 

 harmlessness ; but still there are many who endeavour to 

 make it a prey. 



Nor is this any peculiar condition ; wherever oysters 

 are found they are beset by perils. Even from its very 

 birth do its woes and its sorrows begin. Thus, 

 " at the time when all the adult individuals composing an 

 oyster-bank give birth to their offspring, this living dust 

 issues forth like a thick cloud, which, dispersing far from 

 the spot whence it emanated, and scattered by the move- 

 ments of the water, leaves upon the cultch (souche) only 

 an imperceptible part of the produce ; all the rest disperses, 

 and if these animalcules, wandering here and there by 

 myriads, at the mercy of the waves, do not meet with 

 something solid on which to fix themselves, their death is 

 certain ; for those which have not become a prey to the 

 inferior animals which feed on infusoria, end by falling 

 into a medium unsuitable to their ulterior development, 

 and often by being swallowed up by the mud." M. Coste, 

 Voyage d 1 Exploration, p. 93. 



Or, let us suppose the embryo mollusc to have escaped 

 these dangers ; that it has found and attached itself to 

 some solid body, or to the cultch prepared for its affixture, 

 and further, let us suppose it to have attained a respectable 

 size, and the age of twelve or sixteen months ; and, finally, 

 let still the fancy of the reader follow me, and deem that 

 we are in an oyster-boat. The sails are set, the dredge is 

 sunk, and favouring winds swiftly speed the boat over the 

 oyster zone ! 



Look ! from the dredge I have, at random, picked an 

 oyster of twelve months growth. Observe how impas- 



