The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-03-19
STORY OF AN OYSTER.

Spat, as the oyster spawn is called
we hoated out into the water one
day on the fats"
AT first we were white and appar-
emily lifeless. Then we turned gray
and finally black. At this stage we
became visibly alive. For several
days we hoated, the sport of waves
J and tides. Some of my brothers were
carried out to sea and so vanished;
others were swallowed by fish. At
last we all began instinctively to sink
toward the bottom.
Then began again terrible destruc-
ton. Many fell on mud-the most
fatal thing young oyster can do.
These perished at once. Others at
tached themselves to plants and weeds
which grow at the bottom of the sea.
They lived for time-so long at
least as the plant remained alive.
Then, when the plant died, they per-
ished as we'll.
Fortunately for myself, drifted on
to bit of "cultch" is to say,
one of the old shells which the dred-
gers and oyster men so carefully scat
ter all over the sea floor of an oyster
bed. settled with my deep shell
uppermost and my fat or right shell
nearer the ground. At the time 1
did not know way I did this. l have
since realized that it was because in
that position / should be more easilv
able to eject the sand and grit which
rough sea sometimes stirs up in
shallow water. I attached myself
firmly to my anchorage of "cultch'
aAA- so1t- -.saS.calf -nt 1net fairly started
in life.
Soon I noticed that every single
morsel of shell or stone around me
was tenated by tiny oysters, all lying
in the same position as myself and all
firmly anchored.
There 1 lay, unmoving, for nearly
a year. Food, in the shape of tiny
animalculse, which an oyster loves
best, was plentiful. When the water
was thick with it, we all opened our
shells wide, and, making currents in
the water by means of the tiny hairs
which fringe our gills and which men
call our boards, we washed the dain-
ties into our mouths. Our choicest
delicacies were the minute green alg9,
which give to full grown oysters that
greenish tinge that is the mark of the
aristocratic native.
When l first anchored myself, 1
was but the twentieth of an inch in
diameter-so small, indeed, that a
microscope would have been neces-
sary to examine me. At that stage
my shell was perfectly transparent.
At the end of ten months had in
creased in diameter to fully the size
of dime and become what is called
"brood."
that it was necessary to close my shell
tight when dangers of various kinds
threatened, when the tide was low or,
in winter, when frost was severe.
You may perhaps imagine that an
oyster is a creature of such low or
ganism that it cannot see or feel much
of what is going on round about it.
But you are wrong. The mantle
fringe of an oyster is very sensitive.
If you watched us from boat i'll calm
water, you would see that the mere
shadow of the boat crossing an oys-
ter bed will cause those of us upon
whom it falls to close our shells i'm
mediately.
It was necessary to be most care
full. Dangers were many and terrible.
Sea urchins prowled among us and
devoured many. But of all cur foes
the worst is the five fingered star6sh.
One of my sisters, anchored not a
yard away. fell victim to this terror
of the oyster beds. 1t clutched her
with its long fingers. She closed her
shell.
But the creature was not to be shak-
en- off. Hour after hour it clung
there until on the second day after
its first grip she, poor thing, opened
her shell to get mouthful of food.
At once the star6sh injected into her
fluid which stupe6ed her so that
she could not close again. Then the
monster turned itself inself inside out,
shot itself into the open shell and de-
voured her.
Then, one day year after 1 had
foated as "spat," came startling
change in my existence. Something
huge and heavy came out of the shad-
ow of boat above and approached,
rasping and grating along the bottom.
1t was a great triangular dredee of
wrought iron. At the bottom was a
fat bar with blunt edge, known to
the dredgers as the "bit."
AS the ''bit" approached it scraped
the bottom of the sea clean, and next
instant I, too, found myself lifted and
dropped into the net, together with
hundreds like myself and a miscella-
neous collection of small soles and
other things.
One of the men sorted over the
catch and, having selected all the oys-
ters and spat, shaded" the rest back
into the sea through a portfolio.
1, in company with enormous guam
titles of other brood, was put into a
"wash" "a measure holding five and
a quarter gallons-and relaid. Here
life was less eventful and food most
plentiful. To fatten we'll an oyster
must have a certain amount of fresh
water.
In this snug retreat l passed from
brood to half ware and from half ware
to ware, or full grown oyster. But l
still went on growing and developing,
until one day the dredge swept me up
again, and I was raised once more into
the upper air and rapidly brough in.
l was then dropped into large bag
and suspended in tank of fresh sea
water, which is constantly renewed.
There await my final fate, which
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