Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-11-18
z9or Duu,g Readtrs.
OYSTERS AND THEIR FRIENDS.

weeks on the southern coast of Connect
cut, found was in the neighborhood of
the oyster family, being within stones
throw of the vast cities which they had
built under the sea.
Miles of streets and blocks of white
stone o. shell houses they occupy, under
the salt water; and the fact that they ere
not themselves very gossiping set makes
it the reason why they should not be Cos
siped about.
When | found, to my amazement, that
at every meal [ was putting an end to
the usefulness and enjoyment of dozen
or more lives which had attained the dig
nified age of three, five or eight years, I
wanted to know something of the personal
history of these unhappy victims. So,
next day, when we were tossing up and
down on the waves in a jaunty little sail
boat, | asked that brown old Captain to
tell me all there was to know about
oysters.
To begin the story, he said the fisher
men go out in their little boats with all
the old oyster shells they can carry and
as they row along they scatter them so
that they may fall and make bed under
| the water. After a time the eggs or
| spawn Of many mother oyster who lies
| hidden away among the rocks and sea-
weed along the shore come floating down
| through the water seeking for home
| They take very naturally to these old oys-
ter-shells and there they cling, beginning
| forthwith to build their own shell houses,
each courageous little oyster making a
separate home for himself, although five
or six may be near neighbors just around
! the corner of the same old homestead
shell.
| Twice every day the tide comes and
| goes, washing thousand tiny particles
OF food around the stony houses of these
oysters, who open their doors, take what
| they can get and then 60 back to their dull
little house, keeping inside all the time
waiting to be three years old for until
that time an oyster is not considered large
enough to eat.
| If any grain of sand or other unexpected
little oyster makes the best of his unwel-
| come guest, overlooks his faults and
covers up his sharp points by clothing
| him with some gentle secretion from his
own patient body. In the South American
| pearl oyster this at last results in that
lovely and translucent thing we call a
| pearl. In the tropics oysters sometimes
tasten themselves to bushes or low trees,
| but their shells contain sufficient water to
nourish them until the tide returns.
When the New England oysterman-
| who has made his beds some four or five
| years back, and marked them out by long
poles which stand up in the water-wants
to gather his crops for market, or have a
nice little feast at home, out he goes in
that frail little boat, which has served
him many good turn, carrying pair of
huge rakes with long, wooden handles
| fastened together in the middle like a
pair OF scissors. When he reaches the
| bed he stands up in the boat and with
these long prongs feels about under the
water until he discovers cluster of oys-
tiers, which he rakes up with a ruthless
hand and pours into the boat, stops mo-
ment to throw out the seaweed and stones,
and then makes another plunge
There are other ways of gathering Oys-
| tiers; for | have often stolen out of bed in
the dawn of the morning, when the tide
was low, and have seen the fishermen
wading up to their waists in water, paw
| ing about with short rakes and occasion
ally pulling up cluster of oysters, which
| they can feel with their feet.
Not far from the oysters are their cousins
The clams-who content themselves with
| living farther up the beach, buried about
foot in the mud, so that in low tide
when the ground is laid bare they go out
and dig them with shovel, as though
| they were a field of potatoes.
Beside these, far out in the water, scrab-
bling about in an aimless way, live those
| more distant relatives-the Holsters. For
| these the fishermen put down deep wooden
baskets, which they call lobster-pots. Any
unfortunate victim who gets into this
snare can never find his way out again,
struggle as he may; and so when the
owner goes out in his boat he often finds
his lobster-pots we'll filled.
1t is a very simple and hard life these
poor fishermen lead; forever in the water
and under the VETERINARY times out for
a day and a night, toiling under the
fiercest suns and tossed on the widest
pillows, which threaten each moment to
swallow them up forever, their poor
wives meanwhile looking out into the
darkness, only praying that the angry
waves and the fierce winds may spare their
lives-never thinking to murmur that
as in the Bible story CT old-they "have
toiled all night and taken nothing. -
n. 7. Observer.