1 88 Our Food Mollusks 



vest equally abundant and valuable. As a home for 

 mollusks useful as human food, no other shore is com- 

 parable to this. 



Even in size, the eastern American oyster has a great 

 advantage over its European cousin. Some, having be- 

 come familiar with the diminutive oyster obtained 

 abroad, may question the superiority of mere size in our 

 native product. There is much, it may be said, in dainti- 

 ness and delicacy. Hence the popularity of Blue Points 

 and other baby oysters that formerly found no favor in 

 American markets. On account of their very small, 

 thin, rounded shells, these are in great demand. But it is 

 a safe statement that the average American who has 

 experienced the Blue Point flavor in New York, could 

 not sit down in Norfolk to half a dozen large, fat, adult 

 Lynnhavens, which afford not only the finest flavor, but 

 also something to eat, without declaring the superiority 

 of the latter. However the matter of superiority as an 

 article of food may be decided, the fact remains that the 

 American oyster, north or south, will become as large 

 as the Lynnhaven if allowed to grow under favorable 

 conditions, while a large native oyster in European waters 

 is an impossibility. 



The flat and the Portuguese oysters of Europe have a 

 shell but two or three inches long and are very thin. 

 The eastern American oyster, on the other hand, some- 

 times attains a length of a foot or more. " There be 

 great ones," wrote William Wood of Massachusetts in 

 1634, "in form of a shoe-horne; some be a foot long." 

 A shell fifteen inches long was taken from the Damaris- 

 cotta shell heap in Maine. Oysters six or seven inches 

 long and more than four inches wide are sometimes 

 found in our markets. 



