is leading the blessed and glorious existence of an Epicurean god. The world without its cares and joys, its storms and calms, its passions, evil and good-all are indifferent to the unheeding oyster. Unobservant even of what passes in its immediate vicinity, its soul is concentrated in itself, yet not sluggishly and apathetically, for its body is throbbing with life and enjoyment. The mighty ocean is subservient to its pleaThe rolling waves waft fresh and choice food within its reach, and the flow of the current feeds it without requiring an effort. sures. Though the molluscs do not rank high in the scale of intelligence, Milne-Edwards relates that even the oyster seems educatable to a small degree. In the great oyster establishments on the coasts of Calvados, he learned that the merchants teach them to keep their shells closed when out of the water, by which means they retain the water in their shells, keep their gills moist, and arrive lively in Paris. The process is this: No sooner is an oyster taken from the sea than it closes its shells, and opens them only after a certain time. The men, taking advantage of this to exercise the oysters, remove them from the water daily, and keep them out for longer and longer periods. This has the desired effect; the well-educated mollusc keeps his shell closed for many hours together, and, as long as the shell is closed, his gills are kept moist. The age of an oyster is indicated by the number of its successive layers or plates. These, as we have seen, overlap each other, and each of them marks a year's growth. Up to the time of the animal's maturity these layers, or "shoots," as they are called, are regular and successive; but after that time they become irregular, and are piled one over the other, so that the shell becomes more and more thickened and bulky. Judging from the great thickness to which some oyster-shells have attained, the inhabitant must have reached a patriarchal age (for an oyster). If unmolested, it is to be presumed that this patriarchal age would be a common thing among these molluscs. In some of the ancient rocks, stratum above stratum of extinguished oysters may be seen, each bed consisting of full-grown and aged individuals. Happy broods these pre-Adamite congregations must have been-born in an epoch when epicures were as yet unthought of, when neither Sweeting nor Lynn had come into existence, and when there were no workers in iron to fabricate oysterknives! We have no record of the man who first ventured to swallow an oyster alive; but surely, if he could be found, he deserves a statue to his memory in Billingsgate Market. It is likely, however, that the inhabitants of sea-shores have tried the taste of all the dwellers in the deep, rejecting the unsavoury, till at length the oyster was universally preferred as the most delicious. The "native" oysters, in such repute, are obtained from artificial "" oyster-banks," formed by transporting the young fry to shallow tanks, where, their food being present in great abundance, they thrive, and attain a fine flavour. Their full growth is not reached till they are five or seven years of age. Oysters grown in the natural way -sea oysters, as they are termed also live in vast communities called oyster banks, the left valve of each individual being attached to the rocks, and they attain their majority in four years. Ten years ago the annual supply to the London markets was 20,000 to 30,000 bushels of natives and 100,000 sea oysters. A million and a half of these shell-fish are consumed during each season in Edinburgh, being at the rate of more than 7,300 a day; while upwards of fiftytwo millions are taken from the French channel banks in the course of a year. The poor oyster has many foes and devourers besides man. Star-fishes, with greedy fingers, poke them out of their shells when incautiously yawning, and whelks assail them from above, perseveringly drilling a hole through and through their upper valves. They need large powers of multiplication to keep up their numbers in the face of so much opposition, and it is satisfactory to learn from Poli that a single individual produces 1,200,000 eggs. There is a bivalve, called " Anomia," remarkable for having a hole near the beak of its under-valve, through which a fleshy | able evil; for, rendered uncomfortable, plug is protruded, to serve as a cable, and moor it to the rock. It strikingly resembles an oyster, attached to whose shell it is often found, and when of ample size, has been treated as such, and eaten. Its pungent flavour tickles the palate; but if once fasted, it should be immediately rejected, since this oyster, peppered by nature, is exceedingly pernicious, and apt to produce very ugly symptoms in its consumers. The "Pectens," or scallop-shells, are often very vividly and variously coloured, and have been called the "butterflies of the sea," as well on this account as because of their agile, fluttering, and flying movements. In an aquarium they may be observed shooting hither and thither, and fitfully opening and closing their valves, apparently for no other purpose than to "let off the steam." The shell may be known by the regular radiation of the ribs from the summit of each valve to the circumference, and by the two angular projections, or ears, that widen the sides of the Linge. their peace of mind and ease of body destroyed by some intruding and extraneous substance-a grain of sand, perchance, or an atom of splintered shell-the creature encloses its torturing annoyance in a smooth-coated sphere of gem-like beauty. Would that we bipeds could treat our troubles so philosophically, and convert our secret cankers into sparkling treasures! The early naturalists believed that pearls were petrified rain-drops, falling from heaven into the cavities of gaping shell. fish; but if a pearl is cut through, it will present generally a grain of sand or some small portion of matter, around which successive layers of nacre have been deposited. Any shell, uni-valve or bivalve, with a nacreous interior (or mother-of-pearl lining) may produce pearls. They have been found in limpets, sea-ears, and especially in the unios," fresh-water shells abounding in most rivers of the north. It is said, indeed, that England was once celebrated for its pearls, and that the reputation of them tempted Julius Cæsar to land with his soldiers on the shores of Albion. But the Oriental pearl-mussel (Avicula margariti the most valued pearls, as well as the greatest quantity of mother-of-pearl. At Weymouth a good deal of business is done in dredging these delicacies for the market. Broiled and stuffed with force-fera) is the creature that supplies us with meat, and served in his own shells, the scallop not only forms an ornament to the table, but a pleasing variety amongst the fish. The worthy woman who does the chief trade at Weymouth informed Mr. Gosse that the customers are "mostly the genteels." In the dark ages a large species, the Pecten Jacobæus, or St. James's shell, was worn in the front of the hat by those pilgrims who had visited the shrine of St. James, at Compostella, in Gallicia. The fossil pectens found in the sub-appenine rocks of Italy were supposed by early writers to have been dropped by these devout persons on the road. A shell, nearly related to the common oyster, produces the costly pearls of the East, that have ever been as highly esteemed as the diamond itself. In most instances the pearls are the consequences of the attempts of irritated and uneasy molluscs to make the best of an unavoid The most renowned pearl-fishery is carried on in the Bay of Condatchy, in the island of Ceylon, on banks situated a few miles from the coast. The diver, when he is about to plunge, seizes with the toes of his right foot a rope, to which a stone is attached to accelerate his descent, while the other foot grasps a bag of network. With his right hand he seizes another rope, closes his nostrils with the left, and in this manner rapidly reaches the bottom. He then hangs the net round his neck, and with much dexterity and all possible despatch, collects as many pearl-oysters as he can during the two or three minutes he is able to remain under water. Each diver can repeat this operation about fifty times in one day; but it is not uncommon to see, after several descents, blood streaming from the nose and ears. Pearls are valued according to the purity of their colour and greatness of their size. There is a pear-shaped pearl existing at the present time, which measures above two inches in length by half an inch in thick ness. It was obtained at the fishery of Catipa, in Arabia, and sold for £10,000. The Chinese, profiting by the knowledge that the formation of pearls is a remedial process on the part of the animal, were in the habit, from a very early period, of introducing foreign substances between the mantle and the shell, that they might become coated with pearl. Such shells are frequently brought to this country, and several specimens are now to be seen in the South Kensington Museum, in which various figures and other objects have been covered by nacre. them of great size, have been found in the lias and oolite rocks. The common Mussel is too well known to need description. The animals abound on the rocks of our own coasts, to which they are fixed by their byssus. The numbers brought into the London market, and pur. chased, as treats, by the poor (for the richer classes despise them), are very great. In Edinburgh and Leith, about 400 bushels of mussels-that is, about 400,000 individual animals-are used as food in the course of the year. Still larger quantities appear to be used as bait, for they are tid-bits which the whiting, haddock, and cod cannot resist. Dr. Knapp states that, for this purpose, thirty or forty millions are annually collected in the Firth of Forth alone. The shells of the pearl-oyster are of almost as much value as the pearls, the nacre which lines them being, indeed, the very same sort of material. The shells of other species also afford nacre (or mother-of-soning by these shell-fish. pearl) of considerable value to the manufacturer. From our own seas, or rather from the sea around the Channel Isles, we procure the "Haliotis," or sea-ear, to use it in the decorations of papier-maché work; and other and larger kinds of the same curious genus are brought from the shores and islands of the Pacific Ocean for the same purpose. They furnish the deep-coloured and rich-hued dark-green and purple motherof-pearl; the brighter and paler kinds are from the pearl-oysters themselves. charming colouring is not due to pigments, but caused by the layers of membrane and solid matter. The laminæ, or layers, are not perfectly regular, but the edges of one lie over the surface of another, so that the light is not reflected as it would be from a plain surface, but is thrown into colours. Yet on many parts of our coast the mussels remain ungathered, for the people believe them noxious, and every now and then the doctors register authentic cases of poiDr. Carpenter The The "Hammer-oyster" is another genus, which is chiefly worth notice on account of its singular form, the two sides of the hinge being extended, so as to resemble, in some degree, the head of a hammer; whilst the valves, lengthened out at right angles to these, represent the handle. The creature inhabits the Indian Ocean and the shores of Australia, and many fossil species, some of says that many instances have occurred in which a large number of persons have been suddenly attacked with violent symptoms after eating mussels from a particular bed, and fatal cases have not been uncommon. Professor Forbes declares that the number of persons killed by this virulent, though savoury, mollusc is but small- almost minute when compared with the number of mussel-eaters. One man "musselled," however, makes more noise in the world than a million unharmed; just as the fate of a single victim of a railway accident overpowers all our recollections of the myriads who travel safely every day. The animals called fresh-water mussels are, for the most part, "anodons" and "unios;" the former are so named from the absence of teeth in the hinge ("anodon" means toothless); the unio is the creature from which pearls are occasionally obtained. Passing over the "Arca," distinguished by its equi-valve shell, the "Pectunculus," and the "Trigonia," which resemble it, we come again to the "Tridacna," or clamshell, whose valves attain such enormous size. The animal of the tridacna is distinguished by the beauty of its colours; the mantle of the tridacna safranea, for in. the "red-noses," as they called the great cockles, and after cleansing them a few hours in cold spring-water, fry the animals cockles have not changed their habitsthey are still found in the old spots; but the cottagers find it more profitable to collect the sapid molluscs for the fashionables of Torquay, and content themselves with the humbler and smaller species. stance, has a dark-blue edge with emeraldgreen spots, gradually passing into a light violet. When a large number of these beautiful creatures expand the velvet bril-in a batter made of crumbs of bread. The liancy of their costly robes, in the transparent waters, no flower-bed on earth can equal them in splendour. It is only when the animal is young, and the shell comparatively light, that it is attached to the rocks by a byssus; as the creature gets older, and the shell heavier, the byssus disappears. When the tridacna is thus free, it is said to be taken by a long pole, introduced between the valves when open, the animal immediately closing the valves upon it, and not quitting its hold until it is landed. The byssus, while there is one, is so tough as to require to be chopped away with a hatchet, in order that the shell may be detached. Come we now to the Cockles-those well-known shells, thick, equi-valved, elegantly marked with radiating ribs ribs ornamented in some cases with spires of various and singular forms. See them in the water. What oh, what are those red capsicums? and why are they poking, snapping, starting, crawling, tumbling wildly over each other, rattling about the huge mahogany cockles out of which they are protruded? Mark them well, for they are a Mediterranean species, rarely found on our own coasts. The red capsicum is the foot of the animal contained in the cockleshell. By its aid it crawls, leaps, and burrows in the sand, where it lies drinking in the salt water through one of its syphons, and discharging it again through the other. Never was silken-hosed foot of cardinal arrayed like this. Mr. Gosse compares it to a finger of polished cornelian, and concludes, after all, that it is what it is, and no description can be adequate. With this foot our cockle can leap and jerk himself about in a vigorous and extraordinary fashion. The common edible cockle is found in great abundance on our shores; if a handful of shells be gathered from the sands at random, nearly one-third will be cockles! Dr. Turton records that in his day the cottagers of Paignton, in Devonshire, used to gather Now for those long white razors and gray scimitars. They are Solens, or "Razor-fish,” burrowers in the sand by that foot which protrudes from one end, and nimble in escaping from the Torquay boys, whom you will see boring for them with a long iron screw, on the sands at low tide. Should you visit the shore, you may be desirous of securing a specimen of this bivalve, so like a razor-handle. The shells lie scattered on the sand, but you want to get the living animal. Well, you have before now been instructed in the easy art of catching birds by first dropping a pinch of salt upon their tails; but never having fully carried out the instructions, have had very trifling success. Nevertheless, the solen, though he bores a hole many feet in the sand, is to be caught with salt. Dr. Lankester, instructed by Prof. E. Forbes to adopt this method, had no sooner got to the sea-side, than he quietly stole to the pantry and pocketed some salt, and then went alone at low tide to the sandy shore. As soon as he espied a hole he looked round, for he almost fancied he heard his friend behind him, chuckling at the hoax; however, nobody was there, and down went a pinch of salt over the hole. What he then beheld almost staggered him. Was it the ghost of some razor-fish, or was it a real live solen that now raised its long shell at least half out of the sand? He grasped it, fully expecting it would vanish, but found he had won his prize. They are very good to eat, these razorfish-at least for those who have a digestion for them, and they abound in millions on all our sandy shores. Dr. Lankester having caught more than he wanted for scientific purposes, adopted the suggestion of a Scotch friend, and had the remainder made into soup. When the soup was brought to table, our Scotch friend vowed it was particularly fine, and ate a basin with at least twenty razor-fish in it. One tablespoonful satisfied the ladies, whilst the Doctor and an English friend declared (against their consciences) that they had never eaten anything more excellent. The Scotchman was up at five o'clock, and off to the dredging-ground; but although Dr. L. had only swallowed three solens, nightmare unfitted him to join in the excursion. The remaining members of this group are amongst the most interesting of the bivalve mollusca, both as regards their habits and the curious varieties of structure which they present. The "Pholas," almost as soon as he quits the egg, begins to bore the rock on which he is cast, enlarging his cell with his own increase in size. He prefers a bed of clay, or soft limestone, to anything harder; but if restricted to hard limestone, he can still manage to work his way. Attaching his foot to the bottom of the hole, he sways himself from side to side, and rasps away with his shell, which seems to be renewed as fast as it is worn away. When, in 1851, Mr. Robertson exhibited some pholades at work in the Pavilion, at Brighton, an intelligent lady "observed two animals whose perforations were bringing them nearer and nearer to each other. She was curious to know what they would do when they met, and watched them closely. When the two perforating shell-fish met, and found themselves in each other's way, the stronger just bored right through the weaker one." It is stated that the elder Brunel got an idea from a pholas, which helped him considerably in forming the Thames Tunnel. With the auger-formed head of the mollusc in view, he designed his cast-iron shield; as the pholas lines the passage as fast as he forms it with a chalky secretion, Brunel's workmen lined with brickwork the excavation as fast as it was made. The "Teredo," or ship-worm, is a formidable borer-a bore to shipowners, since many a ship has been known to split in the open sea, no one on board having suspected that the planks had been thoroughly drilled through and through by this patient animal. The hardest oak, nay even teak and sissoo woods, are no obstacles to the teredo. As if in revenge for the unceasing war waged by mankind against its near relative, the oyster, it seems to have registered a vow to extinguish the vitality of as many human beings as lies within its power. Nor have ships alone been the object of its attacks; for many a good landing-pier has it riddled to shreds, not to speak of bolder attempts, such as the endeavour to swamp Holland by destroying the piles of her embankment. Rather more than a century and a quarter ago all Europe believed that the United Provinces were doomed to destruction, and that the teredo was sent by the Deity to pull down the growing arrogance of the Hollanders. But while blaming the teredo for the mischief that it does, justice bids us, not pass over in silence the services it renders to man. Though a devastator of ships and piers, it is also a protector of both, for were the fragments of wreck and masses of stray timber that would choke our harbours and clog the waves permitted to remain undestroyed, the loss of life and injuries to property that would result would soon far exceed all the damages done and dangers caused by the teredo. This active shell-fish is one of the police of Neptune-a scavenger and clearer of the sea. It attacks every stray mass of floating or sunken timber with which it comes in contact, and soon reduces it to harmlessness and dust. For one ship sunk by it a hundred are really saved. |