Edible Cockle.
In vain the Pholas buries itself in stone, or the cockle in the sand; their security was at an end as soon as man had found out that they were grateful to the palate. The former was reckoned a delicacy by the ancients, and the latter is preferred by some to the oyster itself. So much is certain, that, during the years of famine caused by the potato disease, it preserved the lives of many of the poor Shetlanders and Orcadians.
The Razor-Shells, particularly when roasted, and the Clam-Mussels, which are not only a favourite repast of the Greenlander but also of the white bear and arctic fox, are equally reckoned among the most delicate of bivalves.
The common Mussel (Mytilus edulis), which is found in the littoral zone on almost every rocky shore, is eaten in vast numbers by the coast inhabitants, and carried in enormous masses into the interior of the country; it furnishes an equally cheap and agreeable food, but is not easy of digestion, and sometimes produces symptoms of poisoning, which have been ascribed to the eggs of asterias, on which it feeds during the summer. In the northern countries it is also in great request as a bait for cod, ling, rays, and other large fishes that are caught by the line. In the Frith of Forth alone from thirty to forty millions of mussels are used for this purpose, and in many places they are enclosed in gardens, the ground of which is covered with large stones, to which they attach themselves by their byssus or beard.
Edible Mussel.
It is a curious fact that the rearing of mussels should have been introduced into France as far back as the year 1235, by an Irishman of the name of Walton. This man, who had been shipwrecked in the Bay de l'Aiguillon, and gained a precarious living by catching sea-birds, observed that the mussels, which had attached themselves to the poles on which he spread his nets over the shallow waters, were far superior to those that naturally grow in the mud, and immediately made use of his discovery by founding the first "bouchot," or mussel-park, consisting of stakes and rudely interwoven branches. His example soon found imitators, and, strange to say, the method of construction adopted by Walton, six centuries ago, has been maintained unaltered to the present day. It may give some idea of the immense resources that might be obtained from so many utterly neglected lagunes when we hear that the fishermen of l'Aiguillon, although they sell three hundredweight of mussels for the very low sum of five francs, or four shillings, annually export or send them into the interior to the amount of a million or twelve hundred thousand francs.
The praise which Pliny bestowed on the oyster, calling it the palm or glory of the table, is still re-echoed by thousands of enthusiastic admirers. We know that this king of the molluscs congregates in enormous banks, often extending for miles and miles, particularly on rocky ground, though it is also found on a sandy or even on a muddy bottom. Along the shallow alluvial shores of many tropical lands, great quantities of oysters are often found attached to the lower branches of the mangroves, where they are so situated as to be covered when the flood sets in, and to remain suspended in the air when it retires, swinging about as the wind agitates their movable support. The oyster inhabits all the European seas from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Westenfiord in Norway, where it finds its northern boundary, lat. 68° N., but the British waters may be considered as its headquarters, for nowhere is it found in greater abundance and of a richer flavour. After the ancient Romans had once tasted the oysters of Kent—the renowned Rutupians—they preferred them by far to those of the Lucrine lake, of Brindisi, and of Abydos, and Macrobius tells us that the Roman epicures in the fourth century never failed to have them at table. The "Pandores" of Edinburgh, and the "Carlingfords" of Dublin, are likewise celebrated for their delicious flavour; and if we turn to the Continent, we find the Bay of Biscay, and the coasts of Brittany and Normandy, of Holland and of Schleswig-Holstein, renowned for the excellence of their oysters.
Three sorts of oysters are distinguished in the trade. The first comprises those which are dredged from the deeper banks. These are the largest-sized, but also the least valued. The second consists of those that are gathered on a more elevated situation. Being accustomed to the daily vicissitudes of ebb and flood, they retain their water much longer, and can therefore be transported to much greater distances than the former. Those are preferred that grow on a clear bottom near the estuaries of rivers. The third and most valued sort of oysters are those that are cleaned and fattened in artificial parks or stews.