Oysterman

“ There were all sorts of conveniences—carpets on the floors, pictures, and everything, at least, so it seemed to us, to make a home comfortable. This was not all done at once, the oysterman told me. They had lived there for years, and had gradually added this and that until the place was as we saw it. He had an oyster-bed out in the river, and he made cider in the winter, but where he got the apples I don't know. ”

“ I'll be an oysterman, too. That's settled. I'll be a planter and shipper, too. I'll be just as big a man at Bivalve as Captain Rumford or anybody else. I'll show them what Alec Cunningham's got in him. I'll work and work and work and study and study and save my money, and some day I'll have the finest oyster-boat that sails out of this port. And I'll call her Old Honesty, too. And she won't be any old-fashioned sailing boat done over. She'll be an up-to-date oyster-boat, scientifically made. Captain Rumford will have to scrap his whole fleet when my new boat [Pg 111] gets to work. ”

“ Then you didn't have gasoline engines, or telephones, or motor-boats, or automobiles. And to-morrow we shall be using lots of things we don't use to-day. I'm going to find out what they are and learn all about them, so I'll be right up-to-date when I become an oyster shipper."
The shipper looked long and hard at Alec. "Why are you so all-fired keen about doing things [Pg 145] in what you call an 'up-to-date way'? Suppose a man doesn't take up with these newfangled notions, he's still an oysterman, isn't he, and he still has his beds and still sells oysters, doesn't he?" ”

“ When he remembered what he had been told as to the difficulties of becoming an oyster-planter and of the large amount of money required, he could see no way to achieve such an end. He did not see how he could ever earn and save enough money to buy an oyster-boat. Alec was a lad of good sense, however, and after speculating about the matter for a time, he suddenly said to himself, "This is all foolishness. You don't even know yet whether or not you want to be an oysterman. If you do, the best way to succeed is to learn all about the business you can. ”

“ Well they are driven about by the currents and tides, and finally attach themselves to some object, like a rock, or hide in the sand and mud, and there they take up housekeeping for life, for, once their shell hardens, they cannot move.
“They are stupid creatures as compared with superior fish, like you and me for instance; but of course, since they have no head proper, they cannot be expected to use their brains. An Oyster has a large heart, however, as well as eyes, mouth, lips and liver, and he breathes through little tiny things like leaflets on each side of his body. ”

“ Rules have been made for the preservation of oysters, and to allow of new beds being formed. Oysters require nursing, and unless the beds were carefully preserved and reconstructed, they would disappear. The beds are level banks of no great depth, which are seldom or never uncovered by the tide. The first important business, when preparing a bed on which the oyster may spawn, or spat, as it is called, is to sprinkle over it broken plates and pans and tiles, with empty shells and such like substances, to which the embryo oyster immediately attaches itself. ”

“ During that month, by the law of the Admiralty Court, the dredgers have liberty to take every kind of oyster, whatsoever be its size. When they have taken them they gently raise with a knife the small brood from the cultch, and then they throw the cultch in again, to preserve the ground for the future, unless they are so newly spat, that they cannot be safely severed from the cultch, in which case they are permitted to take the stone or shell, which the spat is upon, one shell having often twenty spats. ”

“ Nature, too, has given the oyster a sensitive perception of the changes of light as the means of its protection from the many enemies it has to contend with; for if the shadow of an approaching boat is thrown forward so as to cover it, it closes the valves of its shell before any undulation of the water can have reached it. ”

“ A little fresh water don’t hurt them; but snow water kills them, as it does other fish, outright. To most people, one oyster is just like another; but there are many different sorts, and each sort has a fancy for a particular place. The oyster gives us work for most months in the year; for when not fishing to sell, we are either dredging up the young oysters or laying them down again.”
It is calculated that one spawn oyster produces eight hundred thousand young ”

“ What fairly astounded Alec was the fact that each tiny oyster larva has a foot, which is later absorbed into the body when there is no longer need for it. For, contrary to what the skipper had told him, the oyster fry not only have the power to move about in the water, but they do not die at once if they sink to the bottom and find no suitable place of attachment. With its tiny foot, each microscopic oyster is able to move about on the bottom, and does move about, a few inches at a [Pg 173] time, seeking a place of attachment. ”

“ After feeding upon these diatoms, the beard of the oyster becomes stained a bluish-green colour—the well-known “Marennes vertes” oysters.
A natural oyster bed is formed on stony ground free from mud and sand, so that the oyster, after becoming attached to a stone, is completely surrounded by clear sea-water. Oysters do not flourish in water containing less salt than ordinary sea-water. Thus, there are no oysters in the Baltic Sea.
The chief enemies of the oyster are the dog-whelk that bores through the shell, and the starfish that pulls the valves apart and attacks the oyster inside. ”

“ Then they come to the land or climb up on pieces of wood or trees lying in the water. When one travels in a ship their heads can be seen everywhere coming out of the water. The abundance of oysters is incredible. There are whole banks of them so that the ships must avoid them. A sloop, which was to land us at Kingscreek, struck an oyster bed, where we had to wait about two hours for the tide. They surpass those in England by far in size, indeed, they are four times as large. I often cut them in two, before I could put them into my mouth. The inhabitants usually catch them on Saturday. ”

“ Divide them carefully, clear out the oysters with a knife, and put the shells into your aquarium, and you will find that an oyster at home is a very different thing from an oyster on a stall.
You ought, besides, to dredge many handsome species of shells, which you would never pick up along the beach; and if you are conchologizing in earnest, you must not forget to bring home a tin box of shell sand, to be washed and picked over in a dish at your leisure, or forget either to wash through a fine sieve, over the boat’s side, any sludge and ooze which the dredge brings up. ”

“ Besides these young oysters, the liquor contains a variety of animalcules." Indeed, with the aid of a microscope one million of young have been discovered in a single oyster. Guarded by their two tender shells, these swim freely in the sea when ejected by the parent oyster, until, by means of a glutinous substance, they fix themselves so fast to some object that they can be separated only by force. These young are very soon able to produce others, many say at four months after their birth. When the oyster attains the size of a crown the shell is still very tender and thin ”

“ As these monsters come in shoals, they sometimes inflict serious damage on an oyster-bed. Not long ago, at Keyport, New Jersey, a visit of this character cost the oyster-planters some $10,000. Said "an eminent naturalist," "No fish has teeth strong enough to crush oyster-shells." This is certainly a mistake. I believe that oystermen regard a three-year-old oyster as comparatively safe in this respect, and their apprehensions appertain to the younger beds. ”

“ Then each boat or company makes their heap of oysters at some distance from each other, so that a long row of great heaps of oysters are seen piled along the shore. These are not touched till the fishing is over, when each company sits down beside its own heap, and fails to opening the oysters, which is now easy, as the fish within are all dead and dry. If every oyster had pearls in them, it would be a profitable occupation, but there are many which have none. ”

“ But the full connection between a slick and an oyster-bed below it was not apparent to Alec until he read, "The oyster larvæ, though free-swimming, move so slowly that they are carried about by the currents much as grains of sand would be. They, [Pg 177] therefore, tend to collect in these regions of slicks and eddies, along with a host of other microscopic plants and animals. In such places there occurs a heavier set of spat than elsewhere in that neighborhood. Find the oyster larvæ in the water, then get your shells under them." ”

“ This creature, usually about half an inch long, crawls on an oyster—usually a young one—and with a rasp-like tongue files a hole in the shell, through which it sucks the juices out of the oyster. The only thing that keeps the oyster-drill in check at all is that as soon as it is big enough for a younger drill to climb on its shell, it is apt to suffer the same fate. ”

“ These currents of water not only bring food to the mouth of the bi-valve, but also irrigate the gill plates and so enable the animal to breathe. The oyster lies on the sea bottom with its muscle relaxed and its shell gaping.
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A North European oyster acts alternately as female and male. It produces eggs—as many as a million in a season—and a fortnight after the eggs have been shed, the same oyster produces millions of spermatazoa, which form a cloud of fine dust in the water. ”

“ Let us ask therefore, first, what kind of ideal form may be attributed to a limpet or an oyster, that is to say, whether all oysters do or do not come up to the entire notion or idea of an oyster. I apprehend that, although in respect of size, age, and kind of feeding, there may be some difference between them, yet of those which are of full size and healthy condition there will be found many which fulfil the conditions of an oyster in every respect, and that so perfectly, that we could not, by combining the features of two or more together, produce a more perfect oyster than any that we see. ”

“ Bob Sawyer’s supper party in Pickwick, it may be recollected that “the man to whom the order for the oysters had been sent had not been told to open them; it is a very difficult thing to open an oyster with a limp knife or a two-pronged fork: and very little was done in this way.”
And in one’s own house, unless there be an adept at oyster-opening present, the simplest way to treat the bivalve is the following. It should be remembered that a badly-opened oyster will resemble in flavour a slug on a gravel walk. So roast him, good friends, in his own fortress.
Oysters in their own Juice. ”

“ In like manner they defend themselves against smaller animals, especially against the spider crab, which constantly tries to penetrate into their half open shells. Much natural instinct or foresight is also attributed to the oyster; in proof of which I may name that, when in a position which is exposed to the variations of the tide, oysters seem to be aware that they remain for some hours without water, and consequently provide it within their shells. ”

“ 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 oyster-knives! Geology, and all its wonders, makes known to us scarcely one more mysterious or inexplicable than the creation of oysters long before oyster-eaters and the formation of oyster-banks—ages before dredgers! ”

“ We can ketch twice as many oysters with power boats as we used to with sails, and we don't have room to carry 'em when we get a big catch. Some day they'll build oyster-boats of a new sort. They'll make 'em bigger and higher and have room in the hold where we can put oysters. Then we can catch 'em all winter."
"Don't you catch them in winter now?" asked Alec in astonishment, for he distinctly recalled eating oysters all through the winter season.
"We have to carry 'em on deck," explained Captain Bagley, "and in cold weather they freeze. Then we have to stop dredging. ”

“ Besides this dangerous trio of living enemies, the oyster is subject to constant peril from inanimate agencies. Probably the greatest of these is shifting bottom. Where oysters are grown on sandy soil, the violent waves of winter storms frequently tear up the bottom, or else the force of currents is such as to kill the oysters by completely burying them in the sand. Again, if the oysters are growing in very muddy bottom they are constantly liable to be smothered in the slimy ooze. ”

“ Naturalists have described about sixty varieties of oysters in different parts of the world, and it is said that more than two hundred species of fossil oysters have been found by geologists. Most of these forms are now extinct, and, therefore, we have no way of determining whether all of them have been good to eat or otherwise. It is often remarked that the first man who ate an oyster must have been very brave, and it is a pity that his name has not come down to us. One version of the story is that he thrust his fingers into an open shell which he saw lying on the sea-shore ”

“ That the oyster is a sluggard and objects to leave his bed seems pretty generally admitted; but that he is endowed with the power of locomotion has, fortunately for science, been placed beyond a doubt. Whether oysters shed their shells when they are crossed in love is a point on which the naturalist is still somewhat in the dark. ”

“ Looking in the direction of the movement of Book’s hand, what was his surprise to see a snail with a shell on his back crawling across the table. Where he came from, Willis could not tell.
“When looking at that oyster this afternoon you noticed a thickened portion fastened to a dark spot on the valve,” said Book.
“I remember,” said Willis.
“There is a muscle,” continued Book, “fastened at the dark spot on each valve. It becomes very strong by use. An oyster knows how to let it stretch, thus opening the valves to allow water to enter his chamber. ”