New York. 239 



chey are taken out of the fhells, fried with 

 butter, put into a glafs or earthen veflel 

 with the melted butter over them, fo that 

 they are quite covered with it, and no air 

 can get to them. Oyfters prepared in this 

 manner have likewife an agreeable tafte, 

 and are exported to the Wefi Indies and other 

 parts. 



Oysters are here reckoned very whole- 

 ibme, fome people allured us, that they 

 had not felt the leaft inconvenience, after 

 eating a confiderable quantity of them. It 

 is likewife a common rule here that oyfters 

 are belt in thofe months which have an r 

 in their name, fuch as September, Oclober, 

 Sec ; but that they are not fo good in other 

 months ; however there are poor people, 

 who live all the year long upon nothing but 

 oyfters with bread. 



The fea near New York, affords annu- 

 ally the greateft quantity of oyfters. They 

 are found chiefly in a muddy ground, where 

 they lie in the flime, and are not fo fre- 

 quent in a fandy bottom : a rockey and a 

 ftony bottom is feldom found here. The 

 oyfter (hells are gathered in great heaps, 

 and burnt into a lime, which by fome 

 people is made ufe of in building houfes, 

 but is not reckoned fo good as that made of 

 limeflone. On our journey to New York, we 



faw 



