126 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSC A. 



tells us, they are carried 'from Tarenturn to Naples, in 

 bags, tightly packed with snow, which not only by its 

 coolness preserves them, but also, by preventing them 

 from opening their bivalves, enables them to retain in 

 the shells sufficient moisture to preserve their lives for 

 a long period.* 



There were other places from whence oysters were 

 procured, and Mucianus speaks with rapture of those 

 found at Cyzicus, a town in Asia Minor,f on the shores 

 of the Sea of Marmora, the ruins now called by the 

 Turks, Bal Kiz. He describes them as larger than 

 those of Lake Lucrinus ; fresher than those of the 

 British coasts ; sweeter than those of Medulaa (the dis- 

 trict in the vicinity of Bordeaux, now called Medoc) ; 

 more tasty than those of Ephesus ; more plump than 

 those of Lucus ; less slimy than those of Coryphas (a 

 town of Mysia, opposite Lesbos) ; more delicate than 

 those of Istria, and whiter than those of Circeii (a town 

 of Latium). Pliny mentions that according to the his- 

 torians of Alexander's expedition, oysters were found 

 in the Indian Sea a foot in diameter, J and Sir James 

 E. Tennent unexpectedly attested the correctness of 

 this statement, as at Kottiar, near Trincomalee, enor- 

 mous specimens of the edible oysters were brought to 

 the rest-house. One shell measured more than eleven 

 inches in length, by half as many broad. 



The Greeks preferred the oysters of Abydos, and 

 Archestratus, in his Gastronomy/ says : 



" jEnus has mussels fine ; Abydus too 

 Is famous for its oysters ; Parium produces 



* Poll, 'Testacea Utriusque Siciliae.' 



f Pliny, ' Nat. Hist.' vol. vi. bk. xxxii. ch. 21. J Ibid. 



See note, Nat. Hist, of Ceylon,' p. 371. 



