Marshall: additions lo " BRrrisH conchology." 75 



cream-like colour and consistence, but as it matures it turns greyish 

 and assumes the appearance of slate-dust, and when the parent at 

 length opens its shell and emits the spat, the water becomes misty 

 and then turbid. The new-born oyster is very rudimentary at first, 

 but it possesses a pair of tiny shells, the very miniature of the parent, 

 and this forms a pretty and favourite object for the microscope. Then, 

 by means of a number of cilia attached to the mantle, the infant 

 oyster spins about freely for the first three days of its existence, and 

 it is at this stage that its numbers are so greatly reduced and the 

 cause of its high price kept up, for an open-mouthed fish passing 

 along will swallow hundreds at a gulp. The comparative few 

 that escape this peril then settle down and attach themselves to an 

 anchorage for life, while the cilia, no longer of any use, disappear. 

 In a fortnight the baby oyster has grown to the size of a pin's head, 

 in a year it is as large as a halfpenny, and during the fourth year it is 

 considered at its best and is then marketable, while its natural life is 

 considered to be about eight years. 



The modern system of oyster culture, of course, seeks to obviate 

 the above dangers by taking the oyster from its rough-and-tumble life 

 in tlie stormy seas and placing them in rich and quiet estuarine 

 waters. Several attempts have been made in the Channel Islands, 

 notably at Herm, to cultivate them in catch-pools between the tide- 

 marks, but in addition to its usual enemies it had here to encounter 

 the Octopus, which could not be kept out by any means, and which 

 soon cleared out the oysters. 



In conchology, as a rule, thej-e is not much humour running to 

 waste, the subject not lending itself to hilarity, but one really humor- 

 ous item is worth rescuing from oblivion. President John Craft, of 

 the Alabama State Oyster Commission, started a crusade to preserve 

 oysters from suffering the excruciating agony of being eaten alive, 

 which he is sure they feel acutely, and he attempted to force a law- 

 through the Alabama Legislature making it a criminal offence to eat 

 an oyster unless it has been humanely killed, and to rouse public 

 opinion to his support. Hear the manifesto of this humanitarian 

 gone astray : — 



"Just because an oyster cannot yell and wriggle when its valves 

 are torn violently asunder and it is cut from its base, to be then 

 speared with a fork, sprinkled with salt, pepper and vinegar, that is 

 no reason for concluding the oyster has no feeling. As a matter of 

 fact it does feel pain, and it suffers dreadfqlly. All this could be 

 avoided if the oyster were first slaughtered, quickly and mercifully, 

 and brought to a peaceful end, without lessening its palatable nature 

 in the least. In fact, a fresh oyster that has just died is better than 

 one still alive, and this is explained by simple and well understood 



