THE MILK POND OYSTERS. 55 



osmazome. It frees the digestive and biliary- 

 organs, and has other good effects. The shells 

 even are useful as manure for the soil, and for 

 filtering purposes. 



The oysters of the United States are, in my 

 opinion, the best in the world, and there is an im- 

 mense consumption of oysters there. It is almost 

 a national food. Oysters served plain, or with 

 pepper, salt, and vinegar, oyster-soup, fried oysters, 

 oyster-sauce, pickled oysters, and so forth. The 

 shells are then gathered carefully, taken into the 

 country, ground to powder, and used for the reno- 

 vation of the soil, and so nothing is wasted either of 

 the shell or its contents.* 



* The reader may not be unwilling to receive a few particulars as to 

 tlie nature of the oyster, so I will add the following : — 



The general character of the oyster is to be oval in shape, sometimes 

 round, but never symmetrical ; the shell thickish, pearly inside, and 

 more or less roughly laminated on the exterior. The creature has a 

 head, or rather a part fui-nished with a mouth, corresponding with the 

 hinges and ligaments which unite the valves ; the hinder part, which 

 is larger, lies towards the open side of the valves. The mantle (a 

 thin transparent skin which covers all the body of the oyster) is very 

 ample, and formed of two lobes separated from each other in every 

 part of their circumference, except above the mouth, where it forms a 

 kind of hood which covers the mouth. This mantle is thickened at 

 the borders and provided with two rows of cilia, or very sensitive 

 tentacles, which are muscular and retractile. It is foi-med of two 

 leaves, in the interior of which a yellow matter is secreted, which, 

 according to the commonly received opinion, is composed of the eggs. 



The oyster has no organs of locomotion, and those of sight, hearing 

 and smell appear to be equally wanting. It adheres to its shell by a 

 very powerful muscle. The apparatus of nutritioa is better defined 

 than that of relation. The mouth is large, simple, easily dilated, and 

 placed on the anterior part of the fold of the mantle, inside the hood 



