570 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



In the course of this report I have sometimes mentioned 

 the Portugal oysters. Proposing to return to this subject 

 on arriving at Le Verdon, I did not think it necessary to 

 speak of it at length. The Portugal oyster has appeared 

 for the last two or three years in our markets, it has become 

 an article of public consumption, and, for persons of small 

 means, takes the place of our French oyster, which is too 

 expensive. 



These oysters originate or come from an immense 

 bank at the mouth of the Tagus. The shell is rough and 

 ill-shaped, but it is deep, and generally well filled. This 

 mollusc is capable of acquiring a large and rapid develop- 

 ment in our waters ; it withstands the bad weather better, 

 undergoes travelling more easily, acclimatises itself in 

 places where our indigenous oyster can neither grow nor 

 live, and accommodates itself to all waters. I am assured 

 that its fecundity surpasses that of our oysters. Its embryos, 

 endowed with powerful vitality, display much endurance,' 

 and can be carried a long distance by the current without 

 being destroyed. The spat of these foreign oysters is often 

 transported from La Gironde as far as La Rochelle, where, 

 after having been fixed, on no matter what resisting body, 

 it grows, fattens, and reproduces itself. It comes from a 

 regular bed, which has formed itself not far from Verdon, 

 on the old bank of Richard or De Goulee, nine miles from 

 the mouth of the Gironde. 



It is only six or seven years since a vessel laden with 

 oysters from Portugal, on the point of sinking, discharged 

 her cargo to repair her damages. A part of the oysters, 

 supposed to be dead, were thrown into the river. These 

 oysters have since multiplied at such a rate, and the bank 

 has become so extended, that it is dredged without inter- 



