A gentleman who lived at Salisbury, England, used to keep a pet oyster,
of the largest and finest breed. He fed it on oatmeal, for which it
regularly opened its shell. It also proved itself an excellent mouser,
having killed five mice, by crushing the heads of such as, tempted by
the meal, had the audacity to intrude their noses within its bivalvular
clutches.
A great number of large creeks and rivers wander through the marshes on
the seaboard of Georgia. Whenever the tide bends forcibly against the
land, the effects are counteracted by the walls of living oysters which
grow upon each other from the beds of the rivers to the very verge of
the banks. They are in such abundance, that a vessel of a hundred tons
might load herself in three times her length. Bunches of them
sufficient to fill a bushel are found matted as it were together, and
the neighboring inhabitants and laborers light fires upon the marsh
grass, roll a bunch of oysters upon it, and then eat them.