40 



OSTREID.E. 



those authorities which appear to be most accurate, I 

 consider that its range extends from Iceland (Mohr) to 

 Naples (Scacchi) and the Adriatic (Chierighini). I can 

 answer for the common form, as well as the variety 

 parasitica, being found at Cannes. Muller, Loven, 

 Lilljeborg, Asbjornsen, and Malm have recorded it as 

 inhabiting different parts of the Scandinavian sea, from 

 Christiansund southwards ; and Mr. M c Andrew has 

 found it in Vigo Bay and off Gibraltar. Philippi says 

 that in Sicily it occurs in a fossil state only. According 

 to Gould, it is undistinguishable from the oyster of New 

 York. It has not been observed by Dr. Otto Torell or 

 any arctic explorer on the coasts of Greenland ; but it is 

 common in some of the postglacial beds near Udde- 

 valla and in the diocese of Christiania, associated with 

 high-northern shells. 



Although we are now favoured with only one species 

 of what Gmelin termed the " vermis sapidissimus," and 

 the supply is never equal to the demand, the case was 

 very different in days long since past. E. Forbes says, 

 " During ancient epochs, as we learn from the fossils of 

 both tertiary and secondary strata, many more kinds of 

 oyster lived within our area, and multiplied so as to 

 rival the contents of any modern oyster-beds. The dis- 

 coveries of geologists open scenes of regret to the en- 

 thusiastic oyster-eater, who can hardly gaze upon the 

 abundantly entombed remains of the apparently well-fed 

 and elegantly-shaped oysters of our Eocene formation, 

 without chasing ' a pearly tear away/ whilst he calls to 

 mind how all these delicate beings came into the world, 

 and vanished, to so little purpose." However, there is 

 some consolation in the idea that the breed of ovsters 

 may have since improved by " natural selection," and 

 that, if any of our prehistoric ancestors existed in those 



