Oysters generally cast their spat, or spawn, in the month of May; when first shed it has the appearance of a drop of candle-grease, which the dredgers commonly call cultch. The growth of an Oyster is tolerably rapid; three days after the spawn is deposited, the shell of the young Oyster may be seen, nearly a quarter of an inch in width; in three months it is larger than a shilling, in six months bigger than a half-crown, and in a year it exceeds a crown piece in size.
Ostrea edulis.
Oysters have been employed as food almost from time immemorial. The Greeks, but more especially the Romans, held them in high repute, attaching, at the same time, great importance to the places in which they were found. Those from the Dardanelles, from Venice, and from England, were considered the best, and the prices paid for them by the luxurious inhabitants of Rome were enormous. They were transported in large vessels, and deposited in the Lucrine Lake, where they were fattened for the table. The Romans, it seems, gave a preference to those which had the border of their mantle of a dark-brown colour, nearly black.
The English Oyster-fishery is principally carried on at the following places:—Wivenhoe, near Colchester, in Essex, (the beds here are generally supplied from Portsmouth;) at Feversham and Milton, in Kent, the Swales of the Medway, and at Tenby, on the coast of Wales. In Scotland, they are chiefly taken at the island of Inchkeith, and at Preston-pans, both in the Firth of Forth. The fishing for Oysters is permitted by law, from the 1st of September to the last of April inclusive. During the remaining months they are considered unwholesome; it is a common saying that Oysters are in season during all the months that have the letter r in them.
In France, the chief fishing-station for Oysters is in the Bay of Cançal, between the town of that name and Mount St. Michael, or St. Malo. The fishery is effected by means of an iron net or dredge; this is drawn over the Oyster-bed by hand-labour, or by having the rope which is fixed to it attached to the stem of the fishing-boat, which is then allowed to run before the wind; frequently, in the course of a few minutes, as many as two or three hundred are taken. The Oysters taken are sent from the ports of Granville and Cançal, to different places, where artificial banks or preserves are established. These banks are not only of use in the preservation of the Oysters, but assist materially in their improvement. In fact, the Oyster, when first taken out of the sea, has frequently a strong muddy taste, and appears in what we should call bad condition.
Some of these preserves are a species of tank dug in the sand, or sometimes even in stone, near the sea-shore, and communicating by a narrow tunnel with the sea-water; the bottom and sides of these tanks are usually strewed with large stones. In France great care is bestowed on the management of these preserves; the Oysters are placed by hand on the stones, with the largest shell downwards, and at times the water is let off, and they are freed from all mud and dirt that may have collected, by having large quantities of water poured over them. A fashion existed formerly in France of preferring those Oysters which had a tinge of green, and great pains were taken to cause this change of colour to take place, by placing the animals where they could obtain a peculiar kind of green food.
The Great Comb Shell, ([Pecten maximus].)
This shell, although it has the name of the Great Pecten, is not the largest of the numerous tribe to which it belongs; it is found in all the European seas. The regular nature of the fluting with which it is covered, and the elegance of its markings, have brought it much into use among ladies, who employ it in making pin-cushions and other articles of fancy-work; there are about sixty recent, and thirty fossil species.