last several hours."* Two small leeches (Hirudo bioculata and complanata) often wage successful war against the freshwater snails so abundant in our ditches; and another species (H. hyalina), not so cruel in disposition, draws its nourishment from the sanies which flows from the Planorbis carinatus. Its calcareous envelop is no protection to the mussel against the wiles of the Nymphon grossipes; thousands of littoral shells are devoured by the sea anemones (Actiniæ); and the common star-fish knows so well how "to force the oyster from his close retreat," and destroys such numbers of them, that, at one period, every dredger who observed one of their enemies, and did not tread on and kill it, or throw it upon the shore, was made liable to some penalty.

Having thus taken a general survey of the predatory relation in which other animals stand with the Mollusca, let me now shew you the extent of their use in this view to man, for availing himself very liberally of the licence, "every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you," he has added very many of them to his long dietetical list. Of these the principal, as you will at once guess, is the oyster, "the food that feeds, the living luxury," as it is described by a late poet of celebrity, though there are some who, like the great Mr. Boyle, abhor the eating of them raw, and, with another poet, are ready to exclaim,

"That man had sure a palate cover'd o'er

With brass or steel, that, on the rocky shore,
First broke the oozy oyster's pearly coat,

And risk'd the living morsel down his throat!" +

But, be that as it may, oysters are in general much esteemed, and have, for many centuries, held an eminent place amongst the delicacies of the table. The Romans, when luxury had ousted the temperance of their earlier days, preferred them to all others; and ultimately proceeded to such gross extravagance in their use, that the interference of the magistrate was called forth, and penalties inflicted on such as were convicted of importing them from a distance, "Nec potest videri satis dictum esse de his, cum palma mensarum divitum attribuatur illis," are the words of Pliny. They sometimes

* Entom. Edin. 205. Mag. Nat. Hist. viii. 623.

+ The language of Lentilius is similar: "Animal est aspectu et horridum et nauseosum, sive id spectes in sua concha clausum, sive apertum, ut audax fuisse credi queat, qui primum ea labris admovit."- - Ephemerid. Acad. Leopold. cent. 8, 454. See also Seneca Epist. 95 and 108.

"I had hoped," said Glaucus, in a melancholy tone, "to have procured you some oysters from Britain; but the winds that were so cruel to Cæsar have forbid us the oysters."

THE BRITISH OYSTER-FISHERY.

33

brought them from Britain: but those most celebrated for their sweetness and tenderness were from Cyzicus, a town of Mysia, situate in a cognominal island of the Propontis. You will also remember that those which came from the Lucrine Lake and from Brundusium had no vulgar fame, being occasionally adverted to by their poets and satirists. It was even a grave matter of dispute to which of these the preference was due; and to settle the point, or with a view, perhaps, of combining the good qualities of both, oysters were wont to be carried from Brundusium, and fed for a time in the Lucrine Lake.* Dr. Baster would persuade us that the Roman predilection for oysters was a very sanitary one:-" Living proper medicinal "are endowed with the proper he oysters,' says, virtues; they nourish wonderfully, and solicit rest, for he who sups on oysters is wont on that night to sleep placidly; and to the valetudinary afflicted with a weak stomach, oppressed with phlegm or bile, eight, ten, or twelve raw oysters in the morning, or one hour before dinner, is more healing than any drug or mixture that apothecary can compound!" Oysters abound on various parts of the British coast, and The southhave become a valuable article of commerce. eastern and southern shores afford the principal supply, and probably the fisheries of Essex are the most important.† The principal station of the dredging-boats is at Mersea in Blackwater, which, with the Crouch and the Coln, are the most extensive breeding-rivers in the county. "The oysters are brought from the coasts of Hampshire, Dorset, and other

"Are they in truth so delicious?" asked Lepidus, loosening to a yet more luxurious ease his ungirdled tunic.

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Why, in truth, I suspect it is the distance that gives the flavour; they want the richness of the Brundusium oyster. But at Rome no supper is complete without them."

"The poor Britons! There is some good in them after all," said Sallust; "they produce an oyster !"-Last Days of Pompeii, i. 47.

* "In the new moon all shell-fish fill with juice,
But not all seas the richer sort produce;

The largest in the Lucrine Lake we find,

But the Circæan are of sweeter kind."-Francis's Horace.

"The best in England-fat, salt, green-finned-are bred near Colchester, where they have an excellent art to feed them in pits made for the purpose. King James was wont to say, 'he was a very valiant man who first adventured on eating of oysters.' Most probably mere hunger put men Thus necessity hath often been the purveyor to provide first on that trial. diet for delicacy itself; famine making men to find out those things which afterwards proved not only wholesome, but delicious. Oysters are the only meat which men eat alive, and yet account it no cruelty."-Fuller's Worth. Eng. i. 493.

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maritime counties, even as far as Scotland, and laid in the beds or layings in the creeks adjoining those rivers. The number of vessels immediately employed in the dredging for oysters are about 200, from twelve to forty or fifty tons burden each, employing from 400 to 500 men and boys. The quantity of oysters bred and taken and consumed annually, mostly in London, is supposed to amount to 14,000 or 15,000 bushels. All the other fisheries connected with this part of the coast are stated to employ a capital supposed to amount from 60,000l. to 80,000l." In various parts of Milford Haven there are likewise inexhaustible beds of oysters, of superior excellence. But so important are the oyster-fisheries of Britain, that they have long been an object of attention to the Legislature; and they are regulated by a Court of Admiralty. In 1375 (Edward III.) it was illegal to dredge for oysters or mussels between May and Holyrood day, the 14th of September; or to keep the fry of those fish in any season. † In the month of May, the fishermen are allowed to take the oysters, in order to separate the spawn from the cultch, the latter of which is thrown back, to preserve the bed for the future. After this month it is felony to carry away the cultch, and punishable to take any oyster, unless, when closed, a shilling will rattle between its valves. The spawn is then deposited in beds or layers formed for the purpose, and furnished with sluices, through which, at the springtides, the water is suffered to flow. This water, being stagnant, soon becomes green in warm weather; and, in a short time, the oysters acquire the same tinge, which renders them of greater value in the market. Three years, at least, are required to bring them to a marketable state; and the longer they remain, the more fat and delicate they become. § These artificial beds, as Pliny informs us, were invented by one Sergius Arata, and first established on the Lucrine Lake, A. U. 660; and, from some circumstances mentioned by the naturalist, we may infer that the said Sergius was no loser by the

* Encyclop. Brit. Supp. iv. 269, 270.

+ Nicolas's Hist. Roy. Navy, ii. 205.

By this term are meant the stones, gravel, old shells, &c., to which the spawn adheres; and the reason for punishing its destruction is, that, when taken away, the ooze increases, and mussels and cockles breed on the bed, and destroy the oysters, gradually occupying all the places on which the spawn should be cast.

§ See Sprat's Hist. Roy. Soc. 308; Pennant's Brit. Zoology, iv. 227, &c.; Bingley's Animal Biography, art. Oyster; Thomson's Annals of Philosophy for January, 1818, 70; and the Brit. Cyclop. Nat. Hist. iii. 381.-M. Carbonnel received a patent for a new and simple method of establishing oyster-banks on the coasts of France, of which there is a short account in Chenu's Traité de Conchyliologie, p. 111.

THE FRENCH OYSTER-FISHERY.

35

or

speculation. In Scotland we have none of them, but eat our oysters just as they are brought from their native rocks; and though certainly inferior to the genuine "Pyefleet" The prin"Walfleet," yet they are no despicable dainty. cipal Scottish fishery is that at Prestonpans, in East Lothian. From this place have been sent to fatten, in bays near the mouths of the Thames and Medway, thirty cargoes in one season, each cargo consisting of 320 barrels, and each barrel containing 1,200 saleable oysters, which brought in about 2,500l.; the quantity consumed near the spot, and in Edinburgh, brings somewhat more; and this branch of trade gives occasional employment to about forty boats.* In Ireland, "the entrance to the Bay of Belfast, and the loughs of Strangford and Carlingford, furnish a valuable supply of oysters, which are conveyed for sale to considerable distances. The Carrickfergus oysters are large in size, and so much in demand, that their price in the Belfast market is generally from twelve to fifteen shillings per hundred of 120 oysters. It is occasionally twenty shillings; and we have known one instance in which as much as thirty shillings was paid."†

In France, British oysters, which are reckoned the best in the world, obtain a preference over their own, which neverThe most theless are the source of a very lucrative trade. esteemed are found on the coasts of Brittany, and the largest on those of Normandy, whence they are transported, at a great expense, to Paris during the autumn and winter. The value of the trade may be estimated to some degree from the following details:-At Granville, a small town on the coast of Normandy, there were, in 1817, seventytwo boats employed in this fishery, which commences in the beginning of October, and ends about the middle of April; and during all that time gives work not only to the fishermen, but to many women and children, who carry the oysters to the "parks," in which they are preserved until their sale is effected. This trade yearly produces from 200,000 to 300,000 francs; and, so long as it continues, the harbour of Granville It has employed, between presents a very animated scene.

the years 1816 and 1828, from 70 to 119 boats annually, averaging upwards of 400 tons in all, and manned on an average with 500 men. At Cancale, another town on the same coast, there are commonly seventy boats employed in the same way, averaging in all about 700 tons, and manned with nearly 570 men. In the year 1828, the number of oysters

*Encyclop. Brit. Supp. iv. 268.

+ Patterson's Zoology for Schools, 172.
Rondel. Hist. des Poiss. ii. 27.

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dredged here amounted to 52,000,000, for which the return in money was 170,000 francs.* To communicate to the oysters a green colour, which, as with us, enhances their value in the market and in the estimation of the epicure, they are placed for a time in tanks, or "parks," formed in particular places near highwater mark, and into which the sea can be admitted at pleasure by means of sluices: the water being kept shallow and left at rest, is favourable to the growth of green confervæ and ulvæ; and with these there are generated at the same time innumerable minute crustaceous animalcules, which serve the oysters for food, and tincture their flesh with the desirable hue.

Almost every country can boast of its oyster; and although the species is not always the same, "yet is their meate and substance right pleasaunt in the eating." On many parts of the coast of India they occur in profusion; and at the mouths of several rivers oyster-beds have been made by the natives. The oysters of the Coromandel Coast, though by no means large, are inferior to none in any part of the world, and are best in the months of May, June, July, and August-a curious fact, for in Europe these are the very months in which they are avoided. Those brought to the Calcutta market are mostly all from Chittagong: they are very large, so much so that they require being divided before they are eaten. The shores of China, Japan, and the numerous large islands of the Indian Ocean, are equally productive; and all voyagers agree that the large sort, which is indigenous to many parts of the coast of New Holland, is remarkable for the delicacy of its flavour. In Africa and the West, the tree-oyster (Ostrea arborea), clinging in clusters to the exposed roots of the mangrove tree, which fringes the margin of all great rivers in tropical climates within the influence of the tide, is, according to Adanson, as delicate and well tasted as our own, so that even connoisseurs have been unable to detect any difference. The negroes lop off a branch loaded with the shells, obtaining by one stroke of the axe a large supply; for if the

* Aud. and Edwards Hist. Lit. de la France, i. 41, 42, 171, 173, 179. The Cancale or Saint-Malo fishery produced in

On the American oyster fisheries I refer to Dr. Gould's Report on the Invertebrata of Massachusetts, 356-9. "The whole amount of oysters used annually in Massachusetts cannot fall short of 100,000 bushels." † Ainslie's Mat. Indica, i. 287.