336 OYSTER CLOSE-TIME. [CHAP. vm. 



enunciated as to whether an oyster has eyes, and one author 

 asserts that it has so many as twenty-four, which again is 

 denied, and the assertion made that the so-called eyes project- 

 ing from the border of the mantle have no optical power what- 

 ever ; but be that as it may, I have no doubt whatever that 

 the oyster has a power of knowing the light from the dark. 



Without wishing to dogmatise on any point of oyster 

 life, I think I can bring before my readers in a brief way a few 

 interesting facts in the natural history of the edible oyster. 



As is well known, there is a period every year during 

 which the oyster is not fished ; and the reason why our 

 English oyster-beds have not been ruined or exhausted by 

 overfishing arises, among other causes, from this fact of there 

 being a definite close-time assigned to the breeding of the 

 mollusc. It would be well if the larger varieties of sea pro- 

 duce were equally protected ; for it is sickening to observe 

 the countless numbers of unseasonable fish that are from 

 time to time brought to Billingsgate and other markets, and 

 greedily purchased. The fact that oysters are supplied only 

 during certain months in the year, and that the public have a 

 general corresponding notion that they are totally unfit for 

 wholesome eating during May, June, July, and August (those 

 four wretched months which have not the letter "r" in their 

 names), has been greatly in their favour. Had there been no 

 period of rest, it is almost quite certain that oysters would long- 

 ago I allude to the days when there was no system of 

 cultivation have become extinct, so great is the demand for 

 this dainty mollusc. 



Oysters begin to sicken about the end of April, so that it 

 is" well that their grand rest commences in May. The shedding 

 of the spawn continues during the whole of the hot months 

 not but that during that period there may be found supplies 

 of healthy oysters, but, as a general rule, it is better that there 

 should be a total cessation of the trade during the summer 



