OSTREADiE. 79 



of emerging banks is anxiously applied for by the inha- 

 bitants of the coast, — the more so, as improvements in 

 the working of this branch of trade are of daily occur- 

 rence. Thus, Dr. Kemmerer, of Re, covers a number 

 of tiles with a coating of a kind of mastic, brittle 

 enough to enable him to detach the small oysters from 

 it. When this coating is well covered with seed, he 

 gets it off all in one piece, which he carries to the place 

 where the seed is to grow. The same tile he coats a 

 second time, and so on." 



In France, oysters having a green tint are considered 

 great delicacies, and the art of greening oysters is car- 

 ried to the greatest perfection on the coasts of Aunis, 

 whence come the celebrated green oysters of Marennes. 

 The oysters are, in reality, as white as the others, and 

 only receive their green colour and peculiar flavour 

 when transplanted to certain beds, covered with a small 

 submarine kind of moss, formed of the slime deposited 

 by the sea from the small gulf called the Riviere de 

 Seudre. The 'Moniteur' published a letter from the 

 Mayor of Marennes, in which he states that the trade in 

 green oysters had increased so much during the last fifteen 

 years, that the white oyster-beds in the neighbourhood 

 had become insufficient to stock those peculiar beds 

 where the creature acquires the green colour and that 

 delicious taste which causes the Marennes oyster to be so 

 eagerly sought after. In order to meet the demand, 

 white oysters had to be imported from Spain, Bretagne, 

 Ireland, and England. A considerable quantity of oys- 

 ters are imported from Falmouth, and these contain 

 copper, which imparts an acrid taste. They are gene- 

 rally, on their arrival, deposited in certain beds apart 

 from the others, and there kept for six months; after 



