THE OYSTER 



book ; everything from dead men's bones to fossil remains; 

 from a lump of rock weighing half a hundredweight to a 

 silver pencil-case ; the young, and sometimes the old, of 

 twenty different kinds of fish ; mussels and whelks by the 

 gallon ; a score of varieties of seaweed. I have a six- 

 teenth-century tobacco-pipe that was landed in this 

 manner ; and myself once pulled up a lively sole weigh- 

 ing over a pound and a half, in a dredge. 



Before we discuss the brood that has come up, we must 

 specially notice two objects that have not been included 

 in the collection outlined above, but which will almost in- 

 variably be found wherever there are oysters ; to wit : the 

 " five-finger" (star-fish) and the dog-whelk. These are 

 the young oyster's deadly enemies against which, poor 

 wretch, he is powerless. The star-fish grips him with its 

 terrible arms and suckers, and eats him up, shell and all. 

 The dog- whelk goes to work in a more subtle manner ; 

 having fastened himself on to the shell, he patiently bores 

 a hole through it with a sort of drill wherewith Nature 

 has provided his mouth ; and, having effected an entry, 

 gradually demolishes the soft body within. You may see 

 scores of empty brood shells neatly perforated in this 

 manner. 



Strangely enough, the dredgers wink at the depreda- 

 tions of the star-fish ; if they do not want to take a bag- 

 full of them home for the garden (they are splendid 

 manure for cabbages) they throw them back unharmed 

 into the sea. Yet not many dog- whelks are ever allowed 

 to escape ; the heel of a sea-boot or a bang with a stone 

 speedily cuts short their days. They can easily be dis- 



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