The true northerner., 1882-12-15
Something About Oysters.

c0metnIng ADOut OystorSs
It must have been jolly living during
tho Crustaceous and Jurassic periods,
when the length Of oysters was meas
ured by the foot. In those days it must
have required small pitchfork to eat
oysters off the half-shell. 1t WAS then
the succulent bivalve reached the cul-
minating point in its existence. Had it
retained its size, people now would sit
down to roast oyster as they sit down
to joint of beef or mutton. Signor
Salvini would have found it impossible
to stand up, as he did at the dinner
given him before he last sailed for Eu-
rope and swallow an entire bivalve, of
the largest size in the market, before
an enthusiastic audience. Here is an
interesting question for biologists: Did
the people of Crustaceous and Jurassic
periods eat oysters during the months
without an r, or was it reserved for the
people of this civilized age to yield to a
hideous superstition which deprives us
four months of the year of the most sue
culent product of the sea? A question
of historical interest has also been
raised of recent years. The minute re-
searches of German historians have
proved conclusively that on the event
fHl morning of the ides Of March, when
Julius Caesar left his house, he was in
structed by Calphurnis to stop at an
oyster loon OH the Via Longa and or
der "fry in box" to be sent home to
her, that he forgot to do so, aud pro-
ceeded at once to the Capitol, where
he was murdered, and that had he stop
-
TO warn him would have overtaken him.
But oysters, besides occupying the
attention of grave historians, have in
spired poets. Large bivalves were so
abundant in New York, early in its his
tory, that no one thought of buying
them. This state of the market was
enthusiastically versified as follows:
"Crabs, lobsters mussels, oysters, too, there be-
| 30 large tn one does overbalanoe three
| or those OF Europe; and in quantity
| No ono can reckon.
And not long afterward colonist, in
n poem entitled New England Pros
pects," mentions the oyster, along with
| the lobster and other salt water delica-
cies, i'll this manner:
| "The luscious lobster, with the crab-fsh raw,
The brnish oyster, mussel, perIiwiggc,
| And tortoise sought by the Indian squaw,
Which to the fatts dance many winters
jiggc."
Others ut the same period wrote of
oysters of whose size and sweetness
they make special mention. In 1911,
Arnoldus Montanus speaks OF oysters,
"some n foot long, containing pearls,
but few of brown color" while Josse-
lyn mentions some SO large that they
had to be cut into pieces before they
could be eaten.
"Some," he says. "they roast and
some they dry as they do oysters, which
are delicate breakfast meat so ordered /;
the oysters are longshelled. have
had of them nine inches long from the
! joynt to the toe, containing an oyster
like those the Latines called Tridacaun,
that were 10 be cut into three pieces
before they could put them into their
mouths, very fat and sweet"
They must have been very abundant,
too. There is abundance of brave
oysters at Amboy Point and several
other places" says one writer; and
another speaks of "oysters, L think,
would serve all England" Another, in
speaking Of the advantages of living in
New York, claims zone thing more par
ticular TO us, which the others want
also, which is vast oyster banks, which
is the constant fresh victuals, during
the winter to English as we'll as In
dians; of these there are many along
our coasts, from the seq rs high as
against New York, whence they come
to fetch them"
Oysters have also formed subject of
legal enactments. Statutes have been
passed for the protection of oystermen
in their rights, and some States and
towns have guarded jealously their
oyster beds against citizens of neigh
boring States and towns. Among the
recorded enactments of this kind is one
enacted "att the general COURT held att
Plymouth the fourth of June, 1861"
where is was determined "that five shil-
lings shal bee payed to the Countrey
upon every Darrell of Oysters that is
carryed out of the Gouvment, and that
the Countrey be not defrauded hee
shall enter them with the Towne Clarke
before hee carry them away or else to
forfeit twenty shillings per barrell car
ryed away not entered.
Weekly.