THE FIEST MAN WHO ATE AN OYSTER. 135 



liaised out of his native waters, the oyster makes the voyage to the first station in his 

 destined travels in company with his kind, and if it occupies a long time, is attentively 

 supplied with refreshing sea-water. If taken proper care of, he arrives at the wharf as 

 lively as when first taken from his native element. Witness the excellent American 

 " Blue Points/' now commonly sold in England. Arrived in port, the oyster too often, 

 however, first becomes sensible of the miseries of slavery, for here he is shovelled into carts 

 and barrows, and tumbled into sacks, and he may consider himself greatly fortunate if he 

 gets a drink of salted, not sea, water. 



An old adage tells us that " He was a bold man who first ate an oyster." Mr. Bertram 

 tells us how the discovery was made. " Once upon a time a man of melancholy mood was 

 walking by the shores of a picturesque estuary, and listening to the murmur of the ' sad sea 

 waves ' or, as Mr. Disraeli would say, of ( the melancholy main ' when he espied a very old 

 and ugly oyster-shell, all coated over with parasites and weeds. Its appearance was so 

 unprepossessing that he kicked it aside with his foot ; whereupon the mollusc, astonished at 

 receiving such rude treatment on its own domain, gaped w r ide with indignation, preparatory 

 to closing its bivalve still more closely. Seeing the beautiful cream-coloured layers that 

 shone within the shelly covering, and fancying that the interior of the shell was probably 

 curious or beautiful, he lifted up the aged ' native ' for further examination, inserting his 

 finger and thumb within the valves. The irate mollusc, thinking, no doubt, that this was 

 intended as a further insult, snapped its nacreous portcullis close down upon his finger, 

 causing him considerable pain. After relieving his wounded digit, our inquisitive gentleman 

 very naturally put it in his mouth. 'Delightful!' he exclaimed, opening wide his eyes; 

 ' what is this ?' and again he sucked his finger. Then flashed upon him the great truth that 

 he had discovered a new pleasure had, in fact, opened up to his fellows a source of 

 immeasurable delight. He proceeded at once to realise the thought. With a stone he opened 

 the oyster's threshold, and warily ventured on a piece of the mollusc itself. 'Delicious!' he 

 exclaimed ; and there and then, with no other condiment than its own juice, without the usual 

 accompaniment, as we now take it, of ' foaming brown stout ' or ' pale Chablis ' to wash it 

 down and, sooth to say, it requires neither did that solitary, nameless man indulge in 

 the first oyster-banquet ! " * 



The authorities all agree, as above, that however good some cooked oysters may be, if 

 you would have them in their most delicious condition, you must take them au naturel. In 

 Wilson's "Noctes Ambrosianse " we find the following: "I never, at any time o' the year, 

 had recourse to the cruet till after the lang hunder ; and in September, after four months' 

 fast frae the creturs, I can easily devour them by theirsels, just in their ain liccor, ontill 

 anither fifty ; and then, to be sure, just when I am beginning to be a wee stawed, I apply 

 first the pepper to a squad ; and then, after a score or twa in that way, some dizzen and a half 

 wi' vinegar, and finish off, like you, wi' a wheen to the mustard, till the brodd is naething 

 but shells. . . . There's really no end in nature to the eatin' of eisters." 



Oyster-fishing is pursued in many different ways in different countries. Round Minorca, 

 divers descend, hammer in hand, and bring up as many as they can carry. On the English 



* " The Harvest of the Sea." 



