334 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
something of the enjoyment it confers. Did it ever occur to 
various Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to con 
sider whether the oyster might not he a very proper object of then' 
care ? Let us see if we can bridge over the gulf. 
We commence operations upon them by dragging them violently fi' onJ 
their own clement. We place them out afterwards in water-park'-' 
more or less briny and unsuitable, filled with villanous green matteL 
which presently pervades their breathing apparatus, impregnating’ 
obstructing, and colouring it; the oyster swells, fattens, and soon 
attains that state of obesity which verges on sickness. 
When the poor creature has attained its livid green colour, 1 
is fished up a second time. Alas ! it is now doomed neither 
return to the sea, to the park, nor to its native rock. It has watt 1 ' 
at its disposal only in the very small quantity which it can retain 
between its two valves, a quantity scarcely sufficient to keep awa? 
asphyxia. It is shut up in an obscure narrow basket — an igno 
prison-house, without door or window. It seems to be forgotten th il 
they are animals : they are piled upon the pavement like inert m el ' 
chandise. The basket is carried by railway ; the animal, shaken out o 
existence almost, is at last landed at the door of some oyster-shop ; aB 
this is the critical moment for the poor bivalve ! It is thrown int ® 9 
tub with clean water enough to remind it of its former luxurious In 6 ’ 
when it is again seized by the pitiless being who is now its ^ 
With a great knife he brutally opens the shell, cuts through tn e 
muscle by which it adheres to the valve, and violently detaches 1 > 
after breaking the hinges. It is now laid out on a plate, exposed t; " 
every current of air, and in this state of suffering it is carried to th® 
table. There the pitiless gourmet powders it over with the m 0 ' 
pungent pepper, squeezes over the wounded and still bleeding bo c . 
the abomination of its race in the shape of citric or malic acid ® 
vinegar, and then, alas ! with a silver knife which cannot cut, 
wounds and bruises it a second time ; or, worse still, he saws and teW 
and rends it from its remaining shell; he seizes it with a three-prong® 
fork, which is driven through liver and stomach, and throws it into 1 
mouth, where the teeth cut, crush, and grind it, and, while still lb' 111 -' 
and palpitating, reduced to an inanimate mass, these organs first tritn 
rate it, while our gourmet is drinking its blood, its fat, and its bile- ^ 
We have said that oysters have no head, no arms — that they 11 
