bank of sand. The lake was shallow, and situated
in the vicinity of the enchanting, although highly
volcanic, country which the rich and luxurious
Romans were in the habit of selecting for their
splendid rural villas. In those retreats, they
enjoyed the Lucrine and Circæan oysters, the
latter from the coast of Latium; according to
Pliny, "the British shores had not as yet sent their
supplies at the time when Orata ennobled the
Lucrine oysters." It is difficult to conceive
the mode of carriage that enabled them to
retain their fulness and flavour in a journey
to the imperial city, but Apicius is said to have
supplied the Emperor Trajan with fresh oysters
all the year round. The Rutupinian district
of England derived its name from the Roman
city of Rutupinus, now Richborough, or the
town of the Reach, in the Isle of Thanet, being
built on what was then an estuary. On its
destruction by the Danes, and within a mile of its
site, rose the Saxon town Sondwick, built by
Canute on the salt sands, where the oysters
"most do congregate;"—now the modern
Sandwich, one of the Cinque Ports. It is believed
that in the days of the Romans the surrounding
country was covered with water; and Mr.
Roach Smith, in his recent antiquarian
researches respecting Richborough, informs us,
that in digging in the neighbouring marshes,
what were once large beds of oysters are to this
day brought to light. Steam has revolutionised
the oyster trade; but although the production
must have increased vastly since the days of
Bishop Sprat, the supply does not keep pace
with the demand, arising from increased wealth
and population; and the price of the real natives
has risen higher and higher, until it has become
extravagant. When Christmas approaches, pyramids
of oyster-barrels crowd the platforms of our
railway termini, destined for the wide circles of
rural cousins, in return for brawn, hares, and
country turkeys.

The imperial government of France, with the
view of multiplying those favourites of epicurean
taste and social enjoyment, has recently
devoted much attention to the artificial culture
of oysters, and confided the inquiries to M.
Coste, a member of the Institute, who had made
the natural history of fish his peculiar study.
M. Coste has officially visited all the celebrated
oyster-rearing coasts, and amongst others those
of the British Isles; indeed, the number of his
Christian names—Jean, Jacques, Marie, Cyprien,
Victor—is sufficient to entitle him, under a
separate one, to naturalisation in almost every
European state. In the course of his exploratory
researches he discovered, in the Lago de
Fusaro, on the Neapolitan shore, celebrated for
its trout, the remains of ancient salt-water tanks
still visible, which lead to the belief that it is
the site of the ancient Lucrine Lake. Numerous
remains of ancient villas and tombs can be
traced in its vicinity; and it had been long
supposed to be the crater of an extinct volcano, a
surmise which was proved to be correct by the
emission, in 1838, of such quantities of mephitic
gases as destroyed all the oysters. The race
has been restored, and the tanks discovered are
probably the remains of those laid down two
thousand years ago by Sergius Orata, who derived
a large income from his oyster-beds on the
spot. It would seem that pieces of rock, to
which the young oysters adhered, had, with a
view to transport them undisturbed from the
natural waters in which they had been born, been
brought and deposited in the oyster-parks. The
fishermen on Lake Fusaro, and other Italian
salt lagoons, even at this day form artificial
banks by sinking stakes in the ground in the
form of a circle, which rise above the surface
of the water, so that they may be reached and
raised by the hand when necessary. Stakes are
also laid down in rows, connected by ropes,
from which fagots composed of thin pieces of
wood are suspended, the ropes enabling the
number of movable pieces to be increased as
they may be required. It is probable that the
present inhabitants only traditionally follow the
practice of their celebrated ancestors; ancient
funereal vases are preserved in the museums at
Rome on which may be clearly traced the
outlines of the modern Italian system. It will
form one amongst the many strange revelations
of our times if, after the lapse of so many
centuries, we shall adopt on the English coast—
from which the Romans derived their most
delicious oysters—the example and appliances of
ancient Rome as a means of multiplying the
production of our natives.

In the spawning season, which is generally
from June to September, the oysters shed their
spat, but they do not, like other marine creatures,
abandon their young; they protect them during
the process of incubation in the folds of their
mantle, between their branchial plates. The
youngsters remain in the mucous matter
requisite for their evolution, until they ultimately
effect their embryo development. The mass
which the young oysters then form, resembles
in colour and consistence thick cream; whitish
at first, it gradually turns yellow, and ends by
degenerating into a grey brown, or grey violet
colour, losing its fluidity in consequence of its
absorption as nutriment. That state announces
that the development has terminated, that the
oysters may cease to be nurses, that the infants
are fit for weaning, and it indicates their
approaching expulsion from the maternal shells.
Previous to starting, the tiny brood may be seen,
through a powerful microscope, opening and
shutting their minute valves, and practising
their evolutions in a rotatory motion preparatory
to their entrance into independent existence.
The moment they emerge from their cradles,
they roll about in search of future residences,
being furnished with an apparatus for swimming,
which enables them to seek some solid body to
which they can attach themselves. The number
of young ones thus ejected from the mantle of a
single mother cannot, it is conceived, be less
than from one to two millions; but if the little
floating animalcules are unable to find resting-
places, they inevitably perish. The Italian
practice is admirably adapted to providing