Oysters and other Edible Mollusca. 141 



by the weather. If the nights are clear and cold, the side- 

 walks dry, and the stars out, the consumers throng the 

 retail saloons, and the result is an assemblage of all sorts 

 of vehicles in the morning at the lay-boat stations for new 

 supplies. If the country roads are in prime order, and the 

 fast horses of the well-to-do farmers or bloods can make 

 good time to the village, carrying the girls on supper ex- 

 cursions, the demand for new supplies by rail is increased. 

 But "when the barometer falls to 29, the stars go out 

 of sight, the roads are muddy and the sidewalks damp, 

 the demand falls off. Singularly, however, the prices do 

 not fluctuate. The wholesale prices change to so trifling 

 an extent that the consumer never receives the benefit ; if 

 any one profits by a fall, it is the retailer. 



The oyster trade is one requiring peculiar and delicate 

 perception. Yet the expert who catches the oyster in his 

 left hand, taps it with the butt-end of the knife to make 

 it insensible, and shatters its stony lips to take its life, 

 knows as soon as he lifts it from the pile where it came 

 from, how old it is, whether it is a Delaware, Prince's Bay, 

 City Islander, or has grown under the dashing waves of 

 Rockaway. He knows, too, whether it will open good. 

 The wholesale dealers at New York have over ^"600,000 

 invested in the oyster trade, and receive on an average 

 2,500,000 bushels per annum. During the warm season, 

 the oysters are sent by rail in refrigerator cars, a recent 

 railway improvement. 



On some single days, over 100,000 bushels of oysters 

 have been taken from the Chesapeake Bay, which is the 

 greatest oyster bed in the world, and is said to be inex- 

 haustible. 



Two hundred and fifty boats are engaged in oyster 

 dredging from Baltimore, which bring in about 900 bushels 



