76 
CAPE COD. 
proper relish of Billingsgate ”; but now they are im¬ 
ported commonly full-grown, and laid down near theil 
markets, at Boston and elsewhere, where the watei*, 
being a mixture of salt and fresh, suits them better. 
The business was said to be still good and improving. 
The old man said that the oysters were liable to freeze 
in the winter, if planted too high ; but if it were not “so 
cold as to strain their eyes” they were not injured. 
The inhabitants of New Brunswick have noticed that 
“ ice will not form over an oyster-bed, unless the cold is 
very intense indeed, and when the bays are frozen over 
the oyster-beds are easily discovered by the water above 
them remaining unfrozen, or as the French residents 
say, degeleJ^ Our host said that they kept them in cel¬ 
lars all winter. 
“ Without anything to eat or drink ? ” I asked. 
“ Without anything to eat or drink,” he answered. 
“ Can the oysters move ? ” 
“ Just as much as my shoe.” 
* But when I caught him saying that they “ bedded 
themselves down in the sand, flat side up, round side 
down,” I told him that my shoe could not do that, with¬ 
out the aid of my foot in it; at which he said that they 
merely settled down as they grew ; if put down in a 
square they would be found so ; but the clam could 
move quite fast. I have since been told by oystermen 
of Long Island, where the oyster is still indigenous and 
abundant, that they are found in large masses attached 
to the parent in their midst, and are so taken up with 
their tongs; in which case, they say, the age of the 
young proves that there could have been no motion for 
five or six years at least, And Buckland in his Curiosi¬ 
ties of Natural History (page 50) says : “ An oyster 
