THE OTSTEE. 51 



many a hardy seaman as lie pursues Ids toil to the 

 melodious words — 



" The herring loves the merry moonlight, 

 The mackerel loves the wind, 

 But the oyster loves the dredger's song, 

 For he comes of a gentle kind." 



Raised out of his native waters, the oyster makes the 

 voyage to the first station in his destined travels in the 

 company of those to whom long and kindred ties have 

 bound him, on board the smack upon the deck of which 

 they were jointly landed from the deep ; and during 

 the whole voyage, if it prove a long one, he is atten- 

 tively supplied with refreshing water, so that when the 

 smack lays alongside the wharf at which he is to part 

 company with his captors, he is still as lively as when 

 they first took him as a passenger on board. 



Arm-ed in port, the oyster first truly becomes sensible 

 of the miseries of slaveiy . Shovelled into sacks, or cast 

 anyhow into carts and handbarrows, he may consider 

 himself fortunate if a kindly hand but extends to him, in 

 his great necessity, a di-ink of water impregnated with 

 salt, instead of his own delicious beverage from the sea. 

 Yet this is a cruelty which should be avoided wherever 

 sea-water can be obtained, because it is neither the salt 

 nor the water which sustains the oyster's life, but the 

 spores of vegetation which abound in the sea, and by 

 mixing salt with fresh water we destroy even the Kfe of 

 the incipient fresh- water plants which the latter con- 

 tains. It is as great a mockeiy as when Grumio pro- 

 poses to give the famished Katherine the mustard 

 without the brawn, and need no longer exist if oyster 



