CHAPTER V 

 OYSTER CULTURE IN EUROPE AND JAPAN 



EUROPEAN OYSTER CULTURE 



HERE is abundant evidence that marine mol- 

 lusks were extensively used for food by man 

 before historic times. In many parts of the 

 world ancient shell heaps, some of them of 

 immense proportions, are found near waters that are 

 still capable of producing the same forms. These are so 

 disposed and so constructed that it is certain that they 

 are not natural accumulations on what was formerly 

 ocean bottom, but the work of human hands. This con- 

 clusion is substantiated by the fact that among the shells 

 of clams or oysters or marine snails, the bones of aquatic 

 and land animals are often found, together with primi- 

 tive weapons or domestic implements. Such shell heaps 

 are common on our Atlantic coast, and on some of the 

 islands off the coast of California, there are mounds of 

 shells of great extent that contain mortars and pestles, 

 the bones of fishes, seals, whales, and implements and 

 ornaments of various kinds. Indeed, on the island of 

 San Nicholas there is said to have existed as late as the 

 nineteenth century a primitive tribe of people living after 

 the simple fashion of hundreds of generations of an- 

 cestors, and making the last contribution to vast shell 

 accumulations. Nothing in history is more ghastly than 



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