On the Economical Uses of some species of Testacea. 243 



away, afterwards fatten them for the English markets. Those from 

 Preston Pans are known by the name of Pandoors, as being found 

 at the door of, or near the pans, and from the quantity of freshwater 

 are the fattest and best flavored. In Ireland, Milford Haven is cele- 

 brated for its oysters. 



Oysters are found on most parts of the French coast, but they are 

 most plentiful on those of Bretagne and Normandy. The most ex- 

 tensive fishery is that which is carried on at Granville, in the bay of 

 which, and for six leagues to the northward they abound. The fish- 

 ermen bring them to the town and dispose of them to women, who 

 after having fattened them, dispose of them, either pickled or in the 

 shell. Paris, Dieppe and Rouen are chiefly supplied from this place, 

 for which purpose boats are continually arriving from other parts. 

 The oysters from Rochelle and Bordeaux, and generally from the 

 coast of Bretagne, are however by far the most esteemed ; being fat- 

 ter and more highly flavored, owing to the quantity of fresh water 

 there running into the ocean. Here they are greened in the same 

 manner as in England, and require about the same time to come to 

 perfection. They are all to be met with in Paris, but those from 

 Normandy in the greatest numbers. The appetite for shell fish of 

 all sorts, which seems peculiar to the natives of the southern provin- 

 ces of Italy, is such as to appear exaggerated to a foreigner, accus- 

 tomed to consider but a few of them as eatable. So great however 

 is it, that at Taranto, the government draws a revenue of twenty four 

 thousand ducats annually from the shell fishery alone. In the Mare 

 Picolo, on which this place is situated, the spawn of the oyster is 

 received on large conical earthen pans, secured at equal distances by- 

 ropes tied to them and sunk in different parts of the bay. Their 

 appearance is equally singular and beautiful ; the vessel becomes 

 entirely hidden by the shells, when the whole assumes the form of 

 one solid but irregular mass of rockwork. The young oysters being 

 rubbed off are scattered through various parts of the bay, and finally, 

 when sufficiently grown, are collected by means of iron rakes. 



Of the quantity of oysters consumed in England, we have no cer- 

 tain or continuous statistics. In 1824, the quantity bred and taken 

 in the county of Essex, and consumed mostly in London, was sup- 

 posed to amount to fourteen thousand or fifteen thousand bushels. 

 They are at times imported in considerable numbers, but the year- 

 ly quantity is subject to important fluctuations. In the season of 

 1801-2, one hundred and eighty eight British vessels, carrying from 



