CHAPTER XII.

OYSTERS AND OTHER EDIBLE MOLLUSCA.

Britain long celebrated for oysters-Large consumption and great value of those consumed in England-Continually advancing prices-The Jersey fishery-The French oyster fishery-Oyster consumption in Paris-Ostreiculture on the French coast-American oyster fishery-The New York trade-Oysters in Australia-Clams and other edible molluscs.

THE geographical distribution of the oyster is extensive. Large quantities are found on the American coasts and at the Antipodes. On the coast of Africa it is also plentifully sprinkled.

In antiquity Britain was so celebrated for oysters, that they were sent to Rome; a fact attested by more than one of the Roman poets. The epicures of that city had their layers or stews for oysters, as we have at present in the open sea. According to Pliny, the oyster reservoirs were first made by Sergius Orata, not for the gratification of his own palate, but as a most lucrative speculation by which he realized large profits. The ancients ate oysters as we do, either raw or roasted; but they had also a way of stewing them with mallows and docks, and sometimes with fish. There is a curious account of the treatment of oysters in Sprat's "History of the Royal Society," an abstract of

which may be found in Pennant's "British Zoology.' About 1776, the oysters of Colchester and Rochester were the most famous; and a great part of the inhabitants of the latter place were concerned in or supported by this fishery, which was conducted by a company of free dredgers, established by prescription, but subject to the Corporation.

It is from September to April that oysters are in most request, and during this interval it is computed there are

800,000,000 of oysters consumed in London alone, and quite as many, if not more, in the provinces. We pay between £4,000,000 and £5,000,000 a year for oysters, and there is no doubt double the quantity would find ready consumption if they were obtainable at a reasonable price. During the last ten years the price of "natives" has increased from two guineas to ten guineas a bushel.

The English native oyster of the coasts of Kent and Essex is distinguished from all others:-1. By its peculiar flavour and delicacy. 2. By the colour of its lobes and mantle, which are of a clear green hue, due to the marine plants on which it feeds. 3. By its thin and translucid shell of a brilliant pearly interior, unlike the common oyster which has a large calcareous centre, indicating an inferior quality.

The English native oyster contains iron and alkaline iodides, which renders this mollusc sweet and wholesome, and nourishing food.

Now that the genuine Whitstable oyster fetches 3s. 6d. the dozen, and is likely to cost 4s., if not more, soonwith oysters, in a word, at threepence halfpenny each, and threatening to rise to fourpence-anything that affects, or tends to affect, the price of this delicious bivalve cannot but be matter of almost universal interest. It is certainly cause for great regret that the supply of the best kind of oysters should have fallen so short as it has done of late years. The oyster is not a luxury which only very rich people can expect to command, but it ought to be within the reach of all persons of moderate means. It is essentially the most popular, as well as palatable, of delicacies. It is not many years since the best "natives" from Whitstable and Colchester were only sixpence a dozen in a West-End establishment, and "seconds" but two-thirds of that sum; and then the City clerk, emerging hungry from the theatre, could appease his appetite with oysters and draught stout, secure from any suspicion of undue extravagance. Those golden days unfortunately have fled, and, unless active and practical steps be taken to replenish our oyster beds, they can never be expected to return.

The oyster is not, strictly speaking, a mollusc of the sea.

It can only live and breed in certain shallow estuaries, and even in these it only thrives within particular limits. If we overfish our estuaries we depopulate them, and we have systematically over-dredged our oyster beds. Thus we are now reaping the inevitable result of extravagance and waste. We must cultivate the oyster, or else rest content to see it become still scarcer, or even extinct. No third course is possible. Oyster culture in England is still in its infancy, but it is satisfactory to know that steps are being taken to improve our knowledge of the subject.

The oyster fishing of Arklow, on the east coast of Ireland, is a large and constant source of employment to the fishermen. The oysters are carried in boats to Beaumaris, in Anglesey, where they are laid on banks and raised when required for the Liverpool market.

Oysters continue to be scarce and dear in England. In former years some hundreds of boats might be seen in Goree harbour, Jersey, engaged in the fishery; now, scarcely a dozen boats can pay their way by dredging. The fishing is most active from February to May.

During the spring of 1850 the number of Jersey boats employed in the fishery was 70, manned by 350 men; of English boats, 119, manned by 623 men-a total of 189 boats, 4018 tons, 983 men. The quantity of oysters caught was 105,000 tubs, which fetched 35. a tub-or £15,300! In the autumn of the same year there were 40 Jersey boats, manned by 200 men; 40 English boats, 220 men. These 80 boats caught 19,200 tubs, which sold at 2s. 6d. per tub, or £2400; the total produce of the oysters dredged in the spring and autumn of 1850 being thus £17,700.

In Falmouth harbour there are from 200 to 300 boats employed in the oyster fishery. The price has risen from 25. to 18s. per bushel.

The conventional ring-gauge of oysters is two and a half inches in diameter, and this, it is thought, might be reduced to two inches.

Some 36,000 bushels of oysters have been taken to the coast of Kent to lay down in beds for the London market, and large quantities are bought by French and other merchants, the French giving the highest price.

The French Oyster Fishery.-To show the importance of the French oyster fishery, it may be stated that more than 30 years ago the value of the oysters taken at the two ports of Granville and Cancale realized £22,000. At Granville 105 boats, employing 760 men, took 18,750,000 oysters, and at Cancale 187 boats, with 1083 men, took only 8,000,000 oysters. The Granville oysters then sold at 19 francs 62 cents the 1000; Cancale oysters at 21 francs.

In a report submitted to the Emperor Napoleon by M. Coste, he showed that the production of oysters on the plan recommended by him had taken such a prodigious development, that in the Ile de Ré alone more than 3000 men, who had come from the interior, had established 1500 parks, which produced annually about 371,000,000 oysters, of the value of from 6,000,000 francs to 8,000,000 francs.

To show the consumption of Paris, and the great increase of price, the following figures may be given :

The price has since advanced to over 12 francs the 100, and

the effect has been to stimulate the development of ostreiculture.