THE OYSTER. 1-31 



ber.* Every adult for the oyster is sexless throws forth a living dust, a perfect cloud of 

 embryotic life. The spat is soon scattered far and wide, and unless the young oyster 

 attach itself to some solid body, it falls a victim to other marine animals. Microscopic 

 in size when it leaves the parent, it is at the end of a month about the size of a large 

 pea; in a year it may be an inch and a half in diameter; in three it is getting on to 

 a quite respectable size, and after a short course in the oyster park it is ready for the 

 table.f 



Oysters are of all sizes, and there are some so large that they require to be carved. 

 In New York, the paradise of oyster- eaters, they range from the size of a half-crown to 

 five or six inches long. The shores of Long Island, a distance round of 115 miles, are one 

 continuous oyster-field, while the one State of Virginia is said to possess nearly 2,000,000 

 acres of oyster-beds. The Americans are great lovers of the bivalve, which is probably one 

 of the most wholesome forms of easy nourishment which can possibly be taken. In a stew 

 with milk, and a little oatmeal, or as soup, they are especially good for invalids, and when 

 one can take nothing else, he can usually relish oysters. And, as all gastronomers know, they 

 rather increase than diminish appetite; hence the modern French practice of taking half a 

 dozen before the soup is served. " There is no alimentary substance/' says a French writer, 

 " not even excepting bread, which does not produce indigestion under given circumstances ; 

 but oysters never. . . . We may eat them to-day, to-morrow, eat them always and in 

 profusion, without fear of indigestion/' The few who cannot eat them, and there are such, 

 are really to be commiserated. How highly they are esteemed in some countries is shown 

 by the fact that some years ago they cost in St. Petersburg a paper rouble, or about a 

 shilling each ; in Stockholm, fivepence each. In England only two or three years ago 

 they had risen to nearly four-fifths of the latter price; but now, thanks to the extensive 

 cultivation, and to the importation of excellent American oysters on a large scale, they are 

 within the reach of all. 



Of the quantity of oysters consumed in London alone who can give even an approximate 

 guess ? Fancy, if you can, also, that curiously courteous exchange which goes on every 

 Christmas between our oyster-eating country cousins and our turkey and goose loving 

 Londoners. The turkey, the brace of pheasants or hares, has arrived. " Such a present," 

 says the author of " The Oyster/' " is promptly repaid by a fine cod packed in ice, 

 and two barrels of oysters. How sweet are these when eaten at a country home, and 

 opened by yourselves, the barrel being paraded on the table with its head knocked out, 

 and with the whitest of napkins round it. * * * How sweet it is, too, to open 

 some of the dear natives for your pretty cousin, and to see her open her sweet 

 little mouth about as wide as Lesbia's sparrow did for his lump of not sugar, it 

 was not then invented but lump of honey ! How sweet it is, after the young lady 

 has swallowed her half-dozen, to help yourself ! The oyster never tastes sweeter 



* The popular idea regarding the necessity for the letter r in the open months for oyster-eating is tolerably correct 

 in Europe, but will not apply to all parts of the world. 



t The varied information concerning the oyster contained in this chapter is mainly derived from Bertram's 

 "Harvest of the Sea" ; Figuier's "Ocean World"; and from an interesting little broch urc entitled "The Oyster, 

 Where, How, and When to Find ; " &c. 



