234 OUT OF DOORS. 



a third. I can foretell that the supper will be a most 

 luxurious one, and that the barrel will weigh sensibly 

 lighter after the banquet, but I cannot predict the 

 dreams that are likely to follow. One never knows 

 where to stop in eating oysters. They are as insidious 

 as walnuts or chocolate bon-bons, and the more you 

 take the more you seem to want. ' Only just one," 1 more 

 is said over and over again, until, like the little girl in 

 the story of the ' Three Bears,' the fascinated reveller 

 empties the dish. 



The foregoing remarks will show that the present 

 writer is not insensible to the merits of the oyster, 

 considered in a gastronomical point of view. Not only, 

 however, is the oyster good to eat, but it is curious to 

 look at, and a philosopher will not fail to afford to the 

 mollusc a double appreciation. 



See what a strange life the creature leads, fixed in 

 some definite spot, unable to stir an inch, and enclosed 

 between two large shelly cases. What does it eat? 

 how does it obtain its food ? and, above all, how does 

 it convey the nourishment into its interior ? Take, for 

 example, a periwinkle, a whelk, or any similar mollusc, 

 place it in the sea, fasten its shell firmly to some object, 

 and in a certain time the creature will die of starvation. 

 But place an oyster in precisely the same locality and 

 it will thrive admirably. The secret of its life lies 

 locked within its shells, and, if we open this two-leaved 

 volume we shall find the whole history written within. 



Granting the barrel of natives, of which we have 



