CULTURE OF OYSTERS. 229 



resorting to the same mode of securing the spat which the 

 French have adopted. I have the disposition to pursue 

 this subject, and would but for the limited space afforded. 

 It will, however, be seen from this short notice of oyter 

 culture that any person having command of a s'mall por- 

 tion of shore on salt water can not only grow oysters, but 

 stock his beds and keep up a succession of crops without 

 being under the necessity of procuring seed from a 

 distance. 



A young friend, with whom I was conversing a few 

 evenings since, gave me an account of his visit to Lake 

 Fusaro, where he had partaken of its oysters. To procure 

 them a stake was pulled up by his attendant, and as many 

 as he wanted taken off and the stake replaced. This lake 

 is on classic ground, it is the Avernus of Virgil. It occu- 

 pies the bed of an extinct volcano, and is a mile or so in 

 extent. The youthful traveller alluded to, says that the 

 French and English oysters are very small and insipid com- 

 pared with ours, the size generally not larger than a 

 Spanish dollar. That the larger ones are generally coppery 

 in taste. That the average size is small is evident from 

 their computing fifteen hundred to a bushel ; or, as Mr. 

 Francis Francis lately remarked in a letter, " six to the 

 mouthful." 



Most persons have observed the aptness of the young 

 oyster to cling to anything with which they come in con- 

 tact. The wharves of some of the cities of our southern 

 seaboard, or walls standing in the water, are frequently 

 covered. So also are logs and brush, and even the pendant 

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