Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-12-06
nAN As AN OYSTER EATER.

wood says: "Their bones have been
discovered, and they show an osteology
not known among any of the red men
of to-day, Namely flattening of the
tibia or shin bones. The relics of the
great mounds have shown the same
fact, and so marked is this, that the
name of plGtycRemic or fat-skinned
is proposed for this anti-historic race.
Again, the unpleasant fact is also indi-
Gated that these same ancient oyster
eaters were cannibals; and these heaps
of oyster shells on the land, in which
are mixed relics of the ancient race,
extend FROM Florida to Maine. They
are found on islands IN Casco Bay.
But the oyster is not an inhabitant of
these parts to-day. In fact, it is sort
of fossil; so that some great geological
change has taken place on our coast
since those times in the long ago.
Our knowledge of both time and
space is acquired and extended by
slow degrees. The whole universe of
the wise men of the Middle Ages, and
of the ancients, was a small affair;
while the beginning and end of all
things material were held to be not far
apart. These traditions served to keep
the human mind IN darkness and igno-
rance, a prey to the selfish ambition Of
all who were strong enough to enrich
the few by robbing the many. Con-
servatism should conserve and perpet-
uate all that is true and good, but no
more. This keeps many things and
many ideas and principles forever on
trial before the public, some in the
forum of conscience, some in the forum
of reason, and still more within the
wide range of science, to be decided on
their merits as matters of fact.
The habit Of calmly studying facts
should be cultivated. Figuiersays that
Virginia has two million acres of oys-
ter beds; and we know that the oyster
crop of Maryland is often worth more
than all the wheat she raises, her best
oyster grounds selling at a thousand
dollars an acre. Improve the oyster
beds of Virginia till they are worth
half the sum named as facts accom-
plished in Maryland, and two million
acres covered with salt water will
be worth a thousand million dollars to
the good Mother Of the States, for
raising bivalves.
The wealth of the sea and the growth
Of marine life are not at all apprecia-
ted. In one summer a female oyster
and her mate give existence to two
million young oysters, strong in vitali-
ty, to augment the food of man. Con-
templating prehistoric man in Ameri-
ca by the light of this fact, can we
wonder that he should cling TO the sea-
coast, bays and islands, and in the lapse
Of unknown ages, heap up small noun
tains of oyster shells, even where no
oysters appear to have existed for hun
dreds, probably thousands of years &?
The red man and the buffalo, still quite
common In some parts of the CONT
nent, Will soon pass away like the fos-
sil giant oysters on the Savannah river,
in Georgia, with banks over 100 feet in
thickness, and more than 100 miles
from the sea. Mr.. Lockwood remarks:
at can hardly be questioned that,
the Europeans settled here, that which
is now the eastern coast line of the
United States contained by several
times, more Of these edible bivslves
than did all the rest of the world. The
very shells left inland in many places
by the aboriginal oyster eaters make
mounds of vast extent, in
some instances thirty feet high.
At Fernandina, and other places
in Florida, they were used as
forts in the late war. As to their
antiquity, there can be no doubt that
oysters were eaten there thousands of |
years ago" The capacity of the At
lantic and Gulf States and Others,
watered by a common Gulf Stream, TO |
feed and clothe mankind, Is suggested |
by the abundance and fecundity of |
animal life. The elements and forces
which produce all this vitality are
more Than fit subjects of art, science |
and capital, than man in the plentitude
ot his boundless ingnoranee, believes.
The fish caught in the waters of the
British North American provinces last
gear exceeded twenty-three million dol
lars in value. The force which gives
existence to our great lakes and rivers,
smaller streams and springs, has a
money valne which very few nave
studied. Europeans see this value
more clearly than Americans, who, per-
chance, may become not only old set
.lers in the land, but aborigines, and
curious fossils TO more advanced gene
-ations.