OYSTER CULTURE IN ENGLAND. 365 



heard that the French are as good, you change your order, 

 and, if your tradesman be not conscientious, obtain pre- 

 cisely the same thing at less cost. This is a satisfactory 

 amendment as far as it goes ; but it discredits, most inju- 

 riously and unfairly, the ' genuine article.' 



Complaint is loudly made by the Whitstable Company 

 of dredgers, who have gone so far as to threaten proceed- 

 ings at law. No doubt a purchaser who could prove that 

 he had been deceived, and had paid for that which was not 

 supplied to him, would have his remedy. But in nine cases 

 out of ten he would not know, and in the tenth he might 

 not care. What is to be done ? Obviously, Whitstable 

 cannot put her official seal or trade-mark on every native 

 oyster sent up to London by rail. Is there no other pre- 

 caution against deception ? 



Fortunately, yes. The much-desired seal or trade- 

 mark is set by nature herself on each shell ; and a little 

 attention to distinctive signs will protect every consumer 

 against imposition. It is not very easy to describe on 

 paper the outside difference between natives and foreigners, 

 whose education has been finished at Whitstable. But 

 when their inner qualities are unfolded there is no difficulty 

 whatever. 



Take the shell on which an open oyster has been 

 handed to you, and when you have cleared the way for 

 vision by swallowing the mollusc, look at the smooth 

 empty surface of mother-o'-pearl. If you have the relic of 

 a real Whitstable native in hand, the iridescent whiteness 

 of the shell will either be stainless or else only marked 

 here and there with a faint bluish tinge. If, on the con- 

 trary, the shell be that of an oyster spatted elsewhere than 

 in the estuary of the Thames, even though its after-growth 

 shall have enjoyed the advantage afforded by a Whitstable 



