330 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
Jack’s stories were true : there are oysters which require carving, 8n 
oysters have been plucked off trees. In some parts of America they 
grow very large. Virginia possesses nearly two million acres 0 
oyster-beds. The sea-board of Georgia is famed for its inline® 1 ^ 
supplies ; the whole coast of Long Island, extending to a hundred ®® 
fifteen miles, is occupied with them, and all over the States evident 
is to be seen of the estimate in which the favoured bivalve is held W 
the American people. 
Natural oyster-beds are found in bays, estuaries, and other shelter 6 
sinuosities of the coast, with shelving and not too rocky bottom 3 ’ 
such places being, according to the natural law of production, favo® r 
able for the increase of the colony. Such banks abound in every 3t ' a ' 
In France the oyster-beds of Bochelle, of Kochefort, the Isles of 
and Oleron, the Bay of St. Brieuc, of Cancale, and Granville, a *‘ 
famous for the quality of their produce. 
On the Danish coast there are from forty to fifty oyster-bank 3 ’ 
situated on the west coast of Schleswig ; the best bed lying between 
small Isles of Sylt, Amron, Fohr, Pelworm, and Nordstrand. At 
point of Jutland, and opposite Shagen, beds less productive are found' 
The great oyster-beds of England extend from Gravesend, in tk e 
estuary of the Thames and Medway, along the Kentish coast on the o» e 
hand, and the estuary of the Colne and other rivers on the Essex coa^ 1 
The Frith of Forth is also famous for its oyster-beds, extending f rp11 ’ 
Preston Pans, famous for its “ Bearded Pandores,” far up the estuary 
of the river ; but, curiously enough, all these great banks, without e * 
ception, have been impoverished, and all but exhausted, by improvide® 
dredging, in spite of the “ close season” which has always existed.* 
“ Ho was a bold man who first ate an oyster,” has been said bei® re ' 
The name of the courageous individual has not been recorded, 1® 
Mr. Bertram, in his “Harvest of the Sea,” tells us a legend concern® 1 ' 
» . ° (iff, 
him : “ Once upon a time,” — it must have been a long time ago, — 
man of melancholy mood was walking by the shores of a picturesq® 6 
estuary, listening to the monotonous murmur of the sad sea-wa?® 3 ’ 
* A friend, thoroughly conversant with the subject, protests against this 
against dredging. “ The real reason of the diminution of their productiveness, 
says, “ is that from various causes (of which unsuitable temperature is believed t° 
the chief) there has, for some years, been no spat.” 
