OYSTERS. 233 



{i.e., Oysters artificially cultivated) do not reach their full growth in less than five or seven years. 

 It was the bringing of immature Oysters to market which, to a great extent, produced the 

 subsequent scarcity of this article of food. Many other species of Oysters are eaten in India, 

 China, Australia, &c. 



Frank Buckland* writes : "There are almost as many kinds of Oysters as there are kinds of 

 dogs ; no two Oysters are exactly alike, but those which come from the same locality bear a general 

 iesemblance to each other, so that any one accustomed to handle and criticise Oysters can tell pretty 

 well where they were reared. Taking the English coast round, there are not many localities suitable 

 for Oyster-farming. The reason of this is that where sand is Oysters cannot possibly exist ; the grains 

 of sand get into the hinge of the Oyster, and, like a stone in the hinge of a door, they prevent the 

 opening and shutting of the valves of its shell. The sand then smothers the Oyster, his valves gape, 

 and he dies. For this reason there are no Oysters in the great estuary of the Solway, or in 

 Morecambe Bay (the head-quarters for Cockles), the estuary of the Flintshire Dee, the vast expanse 

 of Cardigan Bay, and the greater part of the estuary of the Severn. Several times has the idea 

 been started to use for an Oyster-farm the great plain of the Maplin Sands at the mouth of the 

 Thames, but Oysters cannot possibly thrive there ; it is all sand. From the Land's End to the 

 North Foreland we begin to find Oysters in the various estuaries and land-locked bays : for example, 

 Falmouth, Plymouth, Poole Harbour, the Solent, Portsmouth, Hayling, Havant, <fec. ; also in the 

 Isle of Wight, in the Medina River, Brading, <fcc. On the north-east coast there are but few 

 Oysters, Boston Deeps and Holy Island being excepted. 



" Oysters may be divided into natives and deep-sea, and between these there are several varieties. 

 The deep-sea Oysters are as different in form and fashion from the natives as a Clydesdale cart- 

 horse is from a thoroughbred race-horse. Like horses, Oysters have their points. The points of an 

 Oyster are first, the shape, which to be perfect should resemble very much the petal of a rose- 

 leaf. Next, the thickness of the shell ; a first-class thoroughbred native should have a shell of 

 the tenuity of a thin china or a Japanese tea-cup. It should also have an almost metallic ring, 

 and a peculiar opalescent lustre on the inner side ; the hollow for the animal of the Oyster should 

 be as much like an egg-cup as possible. Lastly, the flesh itself should be white and firm, and 

 nut-like in taste. It is by taking the average proportion of meat to shell that Oysters must be 

 critically judged. The Oysters at the head of the list are, of course, ' natives ;' the proportion of 

 a well-fed native is one-fourth meat. The nearest approach to natives both in beauty and fatness 

 are the Oysters from Milford, in South Wales. The deep-sea Oysters, such as the white-faced 

 things dredged up in the Channel between England and France, and stored at Shoreham, near 

 Brighton, are one-tenth meat ; while the very worst are some Frenchmen, which are as thin and 

 meagre as French pigs. I have weighed half-a-dozen natives ; the meat contained in these weighed 

 two ounces ; the value, therefore, of Oyster meat at 3s. 6d. per dozen is fourteen shillings per 

 pound, just the cost of a 14 Ib. leg of mutton. 



" It is not to be supposed for a minute that the high-classed aristocratic native has reached the 

 position of the King of Oysters without a great deal of human labour and intelligence having 

 been spent during many generations of dredgermen upon his education. The mouth of the Thames, 

 within a line drawn from about Walton on the north to Margate on the south, may be considered as 

 the home of the true British native. This kind of Oyster seems to thrive only upon London clay. So 

 far as my experience goes, I have come to the conclusion that a fatting place for Oysters is seldom 

 also a breeding place ; the fatting grounds must always be situated in water, with which a 

 certain amount of river water is mixed with sea water. Whitstable is par excellence the best fatting 

 ground in the world, because the food of the Oyster (a subject which has hitherto not been sufficiently 

 investigated) is there present in the greatest abundance, and also because at Whitstable the 

 Oysters are continually being worked by the dredge. The food of the Oyster consists of very 

 minute organisms (such as Infusoria, Rhizopoda, and microscopic larval forms of Ccelenterata). 



* In many a far-off village upon the English coast, and on many a Salmon-stream in Scotland, the name of this amiable 

 and accomplished naturalist will long be cherished as a household word. Few men had more friends. Enemies he had none, 

 save those " rascals," as he styled them, "who wouldn't let a poor Salmon have a chance to come up stream to spawn." He 

 was the true friend of animals of all kinds, and all animals loved Frank Buckland. 

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