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along the shores of the South American continent, beds which 
in some instances are nearly thirty yards deep, and cover an 
area of seventy square miles * * * § So much for the distribution 
of the oyster in time. As regards its present geographical 
range, we may say that it extends from Iceland to Naples and 
the Adriatic.! It is not found in Greenland, but exists abun- 
dantly on the North American coasts : Me Andrew has found 
it in Yigo Bay and off Gibraltar ; and in his valuable report J 
we find it stated that 0. edulis is found from Britain to the 
Mediterranean, at depths varying from four to forty fathoms. 
The oyster does not belong to the eastern hemisphere, 
and judging from the huge quantities contained in the 
Danish kjokkenmoddings, § it must have had a wider 
European range during the (e stone 33 period than it has at 
present. || 
It is hardly necessary in dealing with the anatomical 
characters of the oyster to say anything of its form ; its 
weight, however, may be said to be no indication of the 
amount of flesh within its shell. Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, 
once found an oyster which, though some two pounds and 
a half in weight, did not contain two ounces of animal 
matter within its valves ; and Mr. Buckland possesses 
specimens of North Sea oysters which consist of “ an immense 
quantity of shell and but little flesh.” It may be stated as a 
general rule that, beyond a certain limit, the larger the oyster 
the smaller in proportion is the quantity of flesh which it 
contains. 
Anatomically, the oyster is not the highest member of his 
sub -kingdom (Mollusca or shell-fish), for though highly organ- 
ized in other particulars, he is deprived of a head. The 
various parts which constitute his body are wrapped in a 
sort of membranous fold (the mantle), which not only encloses 
them within it, but forms the shell externally, by abstracting 
the mineral constituents from the surrounding water. The 
organs which our ostroea possesses are the following : — 
Stomach and digestive canal, liver, heart, and blood-vessels, 
* Yide “ The Oyster ; when, how, and where to find, breed, cook, and 
eat it,” p. 35. 
+ Jeffrey’s “ British Conchology,” vol. ii., p. 40. 
% Reports of the British Association for 1856, p. 114. 
§ Lyefl’s “ Antiquity of Man,” p. 12. 
|| In keeping with the subject of “ kitchen middens ” which we have just 
alluded to, we may mention the fact that in Corsica there exists a perfect 
island of oyster-shells, which are supposed to have been the refuse heaps 
formed by the Romans after salting the oyster for exportation. See the 
Intellectual Observer , No. VI., p. 483. 
