368 THE OCEAN WOELD. 



horsefoot oyster (0. hippopus, Linn.). On the Mediterranean coast 

 are the rose-coloured oyster (0. rosacea, Fava&ue), and the milky 

 oyster (0. lacteola, Moquin-Tandon), besides the small and little- 

 known crested oyster (0. cristata, Born), and the folded oyster 

 (0. plicata, Chemnitz). On the Corsican coast is the oyster called 

 foliate (0. lamellosa, Brocchi). 



There are two principal varieties of the common oyster dredged on 

 the French coast, which differ in size and delicacy of flavour. These 

 are the Cancale and Ostend oyster. "When the first has been fed for 

 some time in the oyster park, and has assumed its greenish hue, it is 

 designated the Marenna oyster, from " the park " so named in the 

 Bay of Seudre. Of this green colour we shall speak elsewhere. 



Who believed Uncle Jack when he told us in our youth of oysters 

 growing on trees, and oysters so large that they required to be carved 

 like a round of beef of oysters on the Coromandel coast as large as 

 soup-plates ? Nevertheless Uncle Jack's stories were true : there are 

 oysters which require carving, and oysters have been plucked off trees. 

 In some parts of America they grow very large. Virginia possesses 

 nearly two million acres of oyster-beds. The sea-board of Georgia is 

 famed for its immense supplies; the whole coast of Long Island, 

 extending to a hundred and fifteen miles, is occupied with them, and 

 all over the States evidence is to be seen of the estimate in which the 

 favoured bivalve is held by the American people. 



Natural oyster-beds are found in bays, estuaries, and other sheltered 

 sinuosities of the coast, with shelving and not too rocky bottoms, 

 such places being, according to the natural law of production, favour- 

 able for the increase of the colony. Such banks abound in every sea. 

 In France the oyster-beds of Eochelle, of Eochefort, the Isles of Be 

 and Oleron, the Bay of St. Brieuc, of Cancale, and Granville, are 

 famous for the quality of their produce. 



On the Danish coast there are from forty to fifty oyster-banks, 

 situated on the west coast of Schleswig ; the best bed lying between the 

 small isles of Sylt, Amron, Fohr, Pelworm, and Nordstrand. At the 

 point of Jutland, and opposite Shagen, beds less productive are found. 



The great oyster-beds of England extend from Gravesend, in the 

 estuary of the Thames and Medway, along the Kentish coast on the one 

 hand, and the estuary of the Colne and other rivers on the Essex coast. 

 The Frith of Forth is also famous for its oyster-beds, extending from 



