240 OUT OF DOORS. 



the same feeling which induces even abstemious men 

 to empty a barrel of natives under the plea of ' only 

 just one more.' The whole history and economy of 

 this mollusc is, to me at least, so full of interest that 

 I find myself saying, ' I will only mention just this one 

 point,' and now discover that my paper is well-nigh at an 

 end. Taking leave, therefore, of the individual oyster, 

 we will give a cursory glance to the life led by these 

 bivalves from the egg to the table. In their very 

 early stages we meet with the young oysters within 

 the shells of the parent, enveloped in a gelatinous sub- 

 stance, and partly nourished by the stream of sea- water, 

 which washes them as it is driven along by the fringed 

 edges of the gills. In this condition the young are 

 called the ' spat,' and are soon dismissed from the pro- 

 tecting shell. When set loose from the shell the 

 young molluscs attach themselves in vast quantities to 

 the objects on which they happen to fall, so that the 

 nature of the bed has great influence on the perennial 

 produce. When once fixed they increase rapidly in 

 size, attaining the size of a florin in their first twelve- 

 month, and are thought fit for the table when they 

 have completed their third year. The oysters brought 

 to market are mostly obtained by means of the dredge, 

 which scrapes along the bed of the sea, and tears the 

 molluscs from their attachments. This plan, however, 

 is rather a clumsy one, involving the destruction of many 

 young oysters, and being by no means a certain one. 

 Efforts are now being made in many places to learn 



