PERILS OF THE OYSTER. 221 



disgust of the bivalve, after living in the beautifully clear 

 and fresh water of the ocean, at being immured in a stag- - 

 nant pool, whose water is seldom changed, but always 

 charged with filth. 



" When the miserable creature has attained a livid green 

 colour, it is fished up a second time not, alas ! to be 

 returned to its native sea, but packed in a hamper an 

 ignoble prison-house, without door or window ; with only 

 as much of the life-giving \vater as it can contain between 

 its tightly-closed valves, it is scarcely able to keep off 

 asphyxia. As if they were inanimate merchandise, and 

 not living creatures, they are dispatched by rail, tossed 

 about from one van to another ; and terribly shaken, they 

 at length arrive at an oyster-shop. 



" This is a critical moment for the unhappy bivalve. 

 Thrown into a tub of clean water, its hopes are cruelly 

 revived, and for a moment it fancies its tortures are at an 

 end, and once more it is in the sea. If ever it possessed 

 such thoughts, they are soon dissipated, as it finds itself 

 taken for the third and last time out of its native element. 

 It is now in pitiless hands a blunt knife, in spite of its 

 most strenuous efforts, is thrust between its valves, and 

 with a horrible wrench its shells are forced asunder. The 

 muscle by which they were closed is cut or rather jagged 

 through, and the hinges are violently detached. It is now 

 laid on a plate, exposed to every current of air, and in this 

 state of suffering it is carried to the table. There the 

 thoughtless being for whose pleasure it has suffered untold 

 woes, powders it with the most pungent pepper, squeezes 

 over its wounded and bleeding body the abomination of its 

 race, the acrid vinegar ; and then, alas ! with a silver 

 knife, which only jags, but cannot cut, he wounds and 

 bruises it a second time ; or, worse still, he saws and tears 



