256 
GIGANTIC OYSTERS. 
we encountered quite a different scene. In the 
bight of a sheltered bay lay the brown thatched 
houses of a village. The sea was clear and cahn, 
and the sun shone bright on the wooded hills on the 
opposite side of the Sound. Some slender sharp- 
prowed boats, propelled by bare-headed islanders 
clothed in blue, reminded us we were now among 
the people of the ‘‘ Land of the Eising Sun.” 
Next afternoon we took the gig and iDulled up 
the intricate Sound until we were attracted by a 
deep circular little bay, entirely surrounded by 
towering trees, extending as far as the steep and 
rocky shore. On the precipitous banks huge 
fragments and stumps of what seemed to us fossil* 
trees abounded, the softer rock in which they were 
embedded having been washed away by the rain 
and the tide. 
As for the oysters, their number and size 
astonished and delighted us. Some sjDecimens 
were truly gigantic, the flesh of one alone actually’ 
weighing twelve ounces. We found them rather 
deep down, adhering to the sides of rock-basins, 
