70 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 



found at Cyzicus, a town in Asia Minor,* on the shores 

 of the Sea of Marmora, the ruins now called by the 

 Turks, Bal Kiz. He describes them as larger than 

 those of Lake Lucrinus ; fresher than those of the 

 British coasts ; sweeter than those of Medulse (the dis- 

 trict in the vicinity of Bordeaux, now called Medoc) ; 

 more tasty than those of Ephesus ; more plump than 

 those of Lucus ; less slimy than those of Coryphas (a 

 town of Mysia, opposite Lesbos) ; more delicate than 

 those of Istria, and whiter than those of Circeii (a town 

 of Latium). Pliny mentions that according to the his- 

 torians of Alexander's expedition, oysters were found in 

 the Indian Sea a foot in diameter,f and Sir James E. 

 Tennent unexpectedly attested the correctness of this 

 statement, as at Kottiar, near Trincomalee, enormous 

 specimens of the edible oysters were brought to the rest- 

 house. One shell measured more than eleven inches in 

 length, by half as many broad. { 



The Greeks preferred the oysters of Abydos, and 

 Archestratus, in his ' Gastronomy,' says : — 



" ^nus has mussels fine ; Abydus too 



la famous for its oysters ; Parium produces 



Crabs, the bears of the sea, and Mityleue periwinkles ; 



Ambraoia in all kinds of fish abounds, 



And the boar-fish sends forth ; and in its narrow strait 



Messene cherishes the largest cockles. 



In Ephesus you shall catch chemse, which are not bad, 



And Chalcedon will give you oysters." § 



Great Britain is still celebrated for its oysters, and 

 large artificial beds are formed for the better rearing and 

 breeding of these shellfish, besides the natural oyster- 



* See Pliny, toI. vi. bk. xxxii. ch. 21 (6). 

 t Pliny, Nat. Hist. bk. xxxii. chap. 21 (6). 

 J See note, Nat. Hist. Ceylon, p. 371. 

 § ' The Deipnosophists,' vol. i. bk. iii. p. 154. 



