16 
It is not a little amusing to obtain a parcel of oysters be- 
fore they are washed : how many pretty objects we may 
see ! and these have a very beautiful appearance when spread 
out, (which they will if they are put into water with a small 
quantity of salt.) It is pleasant, on seeing these little spe- 
cimens in a dish of water, to feed our imaginations with 
the beauty and grandeur that exist in some parts of the 
sea, where there are myriads of such, some of them the 
most splendid of beings. As Gray observes, 
“ Full many a gem of purest ray serene 
The dark unfathom’d caves of Ocean bear ; 
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen. 
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.” 
I can conceive the bottom of the ocean in some parts to 
exhibit the most wonderful products of the world. 
