DREDGING FOR OY'STEKS. 



FDUUTH VICAR. 



4000 bushels, each containing IGOO oysters, first 

 year's spawn, in fomtli year of growtli, oysteis at 

 3."is. ]jcr busliel, £7000 



2fiii7 bushels, eacli containing 2400 ojsters, second 

 year's spawn, in third year of growth, ware at 305. 

 per bushel, ....... 



lUOO bushels, each containing 6400 oysters, third 

 year's spawn, in second year of growtli brood at 

 '255. per bushel, ...... 



250 bushels, each containing 25,000 oysters, si.xth 

 year's spawn, in first year's growth, spat at 2(h. 

 per bushel, ,.,,... 



4000 



2500 



25G 



£13.750 



Naturalists'" agree to JitTer " respecting the fecundity 

 of the oyster. Some calculate the young hy thousamls, 

 others by millions. It is certain that the number is 

 prodigious, and so great that they cannot all be con- 

 tained in tlie parent shell at one time, but there seems 

 no good ground for believing that it amounts to 

 " millions." Probably lialf a million is, on the average, 

 the amount of sjiat " brewed " b}' an oyster in one 

 season. A microscopical examination of the oyster- 

 spawn shows it to be a liquid of some little consistency, 

 in which the J'oung oysters, like so many dots, or 

 jioints of a hair, swim to and fro in unresting activity. 

 It is greenish in appearance, and each little globule 

 may be compared to " an oyster nebula," which resolves 

 itself, when examined by a powerful glass, into a thou- 

 sand distinct animals. 



According to the Abbe liiguemine, oysters possess a 

 .greater facility of locomotion than is usually supposed. 

 They are perfectly able to transport themselves from 

 one place to another by causing the sea-water to enter 

 their shell, and suddenly ejecting it from between their 

 valves. This they do with surprising force and 

 rapidity. The same operation is its means of defence 

 aL'ainst its smaller enemies, among which the small 

 crab is particularly peitinacious, lying in wait to dait 

 within the shell while it is partially open. 



From a remote .■'.ntiquity this delicious mollusc has 

 been a favourite article of food. How highly it was 

 esteemed by the Romans is known to every reader of 

 the Latin poets. The Briti.sh oysters especially were 

 held in high repute. To a Roman, one Sergius Orata, 

 we owe the original idea of pisciculture. lie invented 

 an oyster pond, wherein he bred oysters for the supply 

 of his own table. The luxurious Lucullus was also a 

 pisciculturist on an extensive scale. 



In all countries, saj's the agreeable wiiter already 

 quoted, there are records of the excessive fondness of 

 great men for oysters. Cervantes, the author of " Don 

 Quixote," was an oyster-eater, though he satirized 

 the oyster-dealers of Spain. Louis XL, in a laudable 

 desire to encourage the growth of scholarships in 

 France, feasted the learned doctors of the Sorbonne, 

 once a year, on the famous edible ; and another Louis 

 invested his cook with an order of nobility in rewaid 

 for his exquisite skill in dihhing up the dainty mollusc. 

 It is to the credit of Napoleon, the hero of a hundred 

 lights, that he was an oyster-lover. So was the 

 "melancholy" Jean-Jacques Rousseau, though it is 

 dilticult to believe that, if he had properly appreciated 

 its merits, he would have preserved his gloom. It is 



s.aid of Turgot that he «as wont to eat half a dozen, 

 just to sharpen his appetite for breakfast. The French 

 encyclopedists were particularly fond of o\steis. 

 Ilelvetius, Diderot, Voltaire, the Abbe Raynal — all 

 were persevering oyster-eaters. 



And if we turn to our own islands, we meet with 

 oyster-lovers in most of our great men. Such was 

 Alexander Pope ; such was that master mind. Dean 

 Swift. Thomson, the poet of " The Seasons," fidly 

 understood the admirable merits of this mollusc. The 

 erudite Bentley could never pass an oyster-shop, until 

 he had satisfied his craving for the delicacy. Hume, 

 Dugald Stewart, Cullen, and, more recently, " Chiis- 

 topber North," were all great oyster-eaters. Such is 

 the esteem, at the present day, in which the Londoners 

 hold the far-famed crustacean that no less than eiglit 

 himdred millions are consumed by them yearly. What 

 number is required for the supply of all Britain we have 

 no idea, but it must be prodigious, and the demand 

 increases with such rapidity as literally to exhaust the 

 resources of our oyster-dealers ; so that unless its culti- 

 vation be vigorously prosecuted, there is reason to fear 

 that this favourite dainty, before many years have 

 elapsed, will be obtainable only by the wealthy, and at 

 an enormous cost.* 



Oyster-fishing is conducted in several different man- 

 ners. Off the coast of Minorca, intrepid divers, armed 

 with a hammer attached to their right wrist, descend 

 to so great a dc[)th as twelve fathoms, and load the 

 left arm with a heap of the bivalves. Two mariners 

 generally go shares in this harvest. They dive in 

 turns, and often fill up their boat to the gunwale. 



On the British and French coasts oysters are 

 " dragged for." Each boat has a crew of ten men, 

 and is provided with a couple of engines, weighing o[i 

 an average nine kilogrammes. The drags are fastened 

 to the end of a rope. Lowered into the sea, they rake 

 over the bottom, grapple, loosen, and pick up the 

 oysters they fall in with. 



The oyster-banks are divided into several zones or 

 belts, which are worked allernately, and allowed for a 

 definite period to remain undisturbed, so that each zone 

 ma}' be easily ami regularly repeopled. 



Onthecoastof Campeachy, in the Gulf of Mexico, the 

 oysters locate themselves among the submergeil roots 

 of the mangrove trees, and there develope themselves 

 in considerable quantities. The Indians cut off the 

 radical branches, without detaching the clustered 

 bivalves, and proceed to market with actual roots 

 (r-egimes) of oysters. 



The idea of cultivating oysters has occurred to men's 

 minds at different epochs. Sergius Orata, according to 

 Pliu}', was the fiist wdjo devised the plan of inclosing 

 them in artificial basins, or parks, in the neighbourhood 

 of Baia;, in the time of the orator Lucius Crassus, 

 before the Marsic war. It was the same Sergius who 

 made the reputation of the oysters of the Lucrine 

 Lake by first attributing to them an exquisite savour. 

 He actually created an industry, a new branch of 

 trade, which is still flourishing at a few miles distant 

 from its original site. To express the degree of per- 

 fection to wdiich Sergius brought it, his contemporaries 

 " Bertram, The Harvest of the Sea. 



