36 OYSTERS. 



dredged here amounted to 52,000,000, for which the return 

 in money was 170,000 francs.* To communicate to the 

 oysters a green colour, which, as with us, enhances their 

 value in the market and in the estimation of the epicure, 

 they are placed for a time in tanks, or " parks," formed 

 in particular places near highwater mark, and into which 

 the sea can be admitted at pleasure by means of sluices : 

 the water being kept shallow and left at rest, is favourable 

 to the growth of green confervas and ulvae ; and with these 

 there are generated at the same time innumerable minute 

 crustaceous animalcules, which serve the oysters for food, 

 and tincture their flesh with the desirable hue. 



Almost every country can boast of its oyster ; and although 

 the species is not always the same, " yet is their meate and 

 substance right pleasaunt in the eating." On many parts of 

 the coast of India they occur in profusion ; and at the mouths 

 of several rivers oyster-beds have been made by the natives. 

 The oysters of the Coromandel Coast, though by no means 

 large, are inferior to none in any part of the world, and are 

 best in the months of May, June, July, and August— -a curi- 

 ous fact, for in Europe these are the very months in which 

 they are avoided. Those brought to the Calcutta market are 

 mostly all from Chittagong : they are very large, so much so 

 that they require being divided before they are eaten, f The 

 shores of China, Japan, and the numerous large islands of the 

 Indian Ocean, are equally productive ; and all voyagers agree 

 that the large sort, which is indigenous to many parts of the 

 coast of New Holland, is remarkable for the delicacy of its 

 flavour. In Africa and the West, the tree-oyster (Ostrea 

 arborea), clinging in clusters to the exposed roots of the man- 

 grove tree, which fringes the margin of all great rivers in 

 tropical climates within the influence of the tide, is, accord- 

 ing to Adanson, as delicate and well tasted as our own, so 

 that even connoisseurs have been unable to detect any differ- 

 ence. The negroes lop off a branch loaded with the shells, 

 obtaining by one stroke of the axe a large supply ; for if the 



* Aud. and Edwards Hist. Lit. de la France, i. 41, 42, 171, 173, 179. The 

 Cancale or Saint-Malo fishery produced in 



1825 67,236,000 oysters value 188,884 francs. 



1826 78,480,000 „ „ 192,000 „ 



1827 56,550,000 „ „ 166,650 „ 



1828 52,000,000 „ „ 170,000 „ 



On the American oyster fisheries I refer to Dr. Gould's Report on the 

 Invertebrata of Massachusetts, 356—9. " The whole amount of oysters 

 used annually in Massachusetts cannot fall short of 100,000 bushels." 



t Ainslie's Mat. Indica, i. 287. 



