26 



It has struck me that the American oyster may be 

 of a different species from the English ; the shape is 

 not the same, and the flavor (possibly many will 

 say this is prejudice) I think, if possible, finer. If 

 they are, could not the home-bred species be bene- 

 fited by introducing the stranger? Experiment 

 would soon elucidate this, for the American, if packed 

 with the hollow side of the shell down, in solid masses, 

 can be kept alive for months ; in fact I have been 

 shown them thus stowed away in cellars, when they 

 had been built in over ten weeks ; what, then, would 

 a voyage of ten days, under such circumstances, sig- 

 nify ? The motion of the vessel might shake out 

 some of their moisture (on which they subsist), but 

 certainly not all. 



The pinna fisheries of the Mediterranean some 

 years ago used to be most abundant ; from want of 

 culture and the improvements in dredging machinery, 

 it has lately sadly deteriorated, almost to nil. In 

 enlightened England don't let us follow the example 

 of the improvident natives of Southern Europe, who, 

 so long as they can obtain the dinner of the day, care 

 not and think not where to-morrow's is to come 

 from. 



