FOOD FROM THE MOLLTJSCA AND EADIATA. 417 



bushels, exclusive of those taken from private beds, cul- 

 tivated by residents for their own use. 



In the City of Baltimore seventy houses were engaged 

 in the oyster business, mostly canning for exportation, 

 while at various points in the bay are establishments 

 that employ from fifty to 400 hands each during the 

 season, in opening and canning. By the official reports 

 there were 15,000 persons engaged in the business of 

 oyster fishing, and a fleet of 1,700 vessels, of fifty tons 

 burthen, and over 3,000 smaller craft, duly licensed to 

 the trade. There was also a population of 20,000 persons 

 on the islands and mainland with whom oysters form an 

 article of general consumption throughout the season. 

 It was estimated that thousands of bushels of this bivalve 

 were taken annually on the coast from Massachusetts to 

 Virginia. 



The Americans hold oysters in esteem, and they have 

 a very great variety of choice ones, such as the small 

 Blue Points, the Rockaways, the Morris Cove from New 

 Jersey, the Saddle Rocks (a particularly fat variety), the 

 Norwalls from Connecticut, and others. Many of these 

 now arrive in London. Besides the quantities of fresh 

 oysters eaten in the United States, a large trade is done 

 in canning or tinning them. They are pickled, spiced, 

 and hermetically sealed for export. 



The Chinese boil them and then dry them in the sun. 



The green colour of oysters has been noticed in several 

 localities, at Marennes, the Isle of Oleron, CornseuUes, &c., 

 and the cause of this has long occupied the attention both 

 of breeders and scientific men. In Lovell's "Edible 

 MoUusks," it is stated to arise from a submarine kind of 

 moss. Gaillon (" Journal de Physique," Sept. 1820, tome 

 XCI.) attributes it to an animalcule, which he named 

 Vibrio ostremim. Later investigations assign it to a 

 variety of the diatom, Navimla fusiforma* 



• See a paper by Mr. G. Puysegur on this subject, with an 

 illustration, in the " Revue Maritime et Coloniale," Paris, vol. 

 Ixiv., p. 248. 



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