Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1865-02-15
THE OYSTER.
There lives and works
4 cn,l in all thinoa and that S0u(

In London alone upwards of one hundred thousand |
bushels of Oysters are annually consumed, while |
our neighbors the Scotch seem no less fond OF this
delicate little shell-6sh; the good folks of Edin.
burg eating them during the season at the rate OF
seven thousand three hundred a day. Few, how
ever, of the many thousand English or Caledonians
who thus feast, know more than the name and tls-
YOUR Of the poor native they swallow. Of his nat.
ural history, his habits of life his wondrous and
beautiful structure, they know little or nothing
And SET perhaps, in no one of his creatures are
the wisdom and goodness Of God to be seen more
plainly. ...
Some 100 years ago, Or. sprat then Bishop Of
Rochester, who, with his friend Wilkins, and Sir
Christopher Wren, was laying the foundation of
Royal Society, gravely proposed an oyster bed as
subject we'll worthy Of careful study and enquiry.
Hosts of wise men, since the Bishops day, have
thought and said the same thing though, until OF
late years. little more has been generally kncwn Of
our friend, the oyster, than he lived in bvalve
shell, quiet meditative life opening and shutting
his mansion as the tide came a:"! went e
Now, however, his biography has been carefully
and pleasantly writ:en Is more than one of our
ablest men so that we have little trouble in sketch
ing, for the readers of the Penny Post brief out
line CT his life. To begin, then: the young oys
.erlips starts into life, not staid, respectable
house holder, residing in one fixed home in pop
ulous neighborhood- as a very minute point
of oyster like appearance, simply endowed with
mouth and shoulders, pair of wing-like lobes on
either side, without body or legs. He is now all
life and motion, carried hither and thither in all
directions by every chance wave, now far down in
the depths
"Where the sea-fower spreads its leaves of blue,
That never are wet with falling dew,
But in bright and changefnl beauty shine
Far down in the deep and CLASSY brine"
And in another minute lightly fitting upwsrds
towards the light sparkle OF the surface or skim
ming swiftly on above the heads of his quiet, still,
and steady relations below. During this period of
his existence, the oyster has many enemies, and is
exposed to many danger and peril. Fishes, large
and small, are ready on all sides to swallow him, as
we'll as many crawling and creeping foe among
the seaweeds and sedges; so that his best chance
Of escape lies in not obtruding on their notice
than he can help.
After this stage of existence, the oysterling aban
dons his rowing life and settles down as quiet re.
spectacle fish, living in bivave shell, which in
creases in thickness and in size every successive
year. He reaches perfection and maturity in about
five or six years; and his age is to be found out,
not by looking at the size and length of his beard,
but by examining his back. Ifyou look at the back
of an oyster you will see it is composed of sue.
cessive layers, or "sAoots," as the fishermen term
them, which overlap each other. Each of these
shoots mark years growth, SO that in most
cases, the oysters age may be easily decided.
After a time, these shoots cease to be regular,
but lie almost evenly one on the other, so that the
shell ceases to be enlarged, while it increases in
thickness.
How wisely then, and with what beauty has the
hand of God arranged for the safety and welfare
even Of the thousand creeping things that inhabit
| the wide sea.
| AS the little oyster grows arace, and requires
more room, his shell increases in such way as to
give what is needed by spreading at its outer edge;
and when he has become perfect and mature, need
ing no more space the walls of his house are no
longer enlarged, but Strengthened and thlckened by
layers the outside. Even then, however, the
oy ster is still exposed to some risk though bis shell
be thus made strong, and he clings to it most firmly
by the aid of bres and muscles fitted for the pur
pose
When he incautiously yawns too widely, the star.
fish is said to intrude long fner.like ray inside
and thrust him from his home; while on the out.
side, the whelk with great incessant toll, bores
hole through his upper shell, as the teredo au-
gerworm borer into the oak plank of our ships
Thus, in bis quiet shell lives the oyster, happy
and contented. The wide sea itself ministers to
him, every wave and bow that passes bringing
fresh and pleasant food, as well as fresh air, with
little trouble or exert the part of the quiet ma
! tive
Our good friend Bishop Sprat, was inclined to
oeese LIaC oysters, masculine and feminine 10
be distinguished from the color of their boards. But
since. his day we have looked into the matter some.
what more closely, and found out that what we call
boards are only exqusitely fine friages which serve
the oysters instead of lungs. And as all must
breathe to live, every oyster, both male and female
! has beard
| All water, as we know, contains air, and every
| drop that passes inside the oystershel not only
| brings in it meat and drink, but also fresh air.
which the countless millions of bers, forming the
beard, instantly suck ill., So minute are these
fbers, as only to be visible BY the aid of power
| ful microscope, which shows them to us covered
with millions Of still more minute rays of fringe.
AL heaving and beating, as it were, with ono regu-
lar pulse. 2
Every one of these countless points of fringe is
replets with life, each telling Of the Divine hand
which. at the first, arranged all fits wondrous and
beautiful mechanism. a.
SO wunderous is this mechanism, so perpetual its
UNMARRIED motion, that one Of the earliest of the
Dutch nNturalists, who examined the beard of an
oyster through q microscope, was astounded at
what he saw. The motion saw" says be, "in
the small component parts of it was 80 Incredibly
great, that could not be satisfied with the spects
Gle; and it is not in the nind of man to conceive
all the motions which behald within the commas
of grain of sand" ,.ts..-', 60 r :
NO less wondrous is the whole bodily struetu%e
OF the oyster; no less full of beauty and wisdom.
II the Dutchlnan could have looked .throuph the
more perfect microscope of our day, he nould have
ioand less cause for wonder in every mirntast n.,t
OF the oysters frame t.e 'sE-'--S r. --
Inc oyster has many relations who, like himself.