es is a shapeless, twisted, knotty, rocky-looking creature, such
as a legitimate oyster would be in a fit of spasms or convulsions. In
fact, there is no vestige of the true breed about it, and the want of
flavor equals its miserable exterior.

There are few positions more tantalizing to a hungry man than that of
being surrounded b oysters without a knife. It is an obstinate and
perverse wretch that will not accommodate itself to man's appetite, and
it requires a forcible attack to vanquish it; so that every oyster
eaten is an individual murder, in which the cold steel has been plunged
into its vitals, and the animal finds itself swallowed before it as
quite made up its mind that it has been opened. But take away the
knife, and see how vain is the attempt to force the stronghold. How
utterly useless is the oyster! You may turn it over and over, and look
for a weak place, but there is no admittance; you may knock it with a
stone, but the knock will be unanswered. How would you open such a
creature without a knife?

This was one of the many things that had never occurred to me until one
day when I found myself with some three or four friends and a few
boatmen on a little island, or rather a rock, about a mile from the
shore. This rock was rich in the spasmodic kind of oyster, large
detached masses of which lay just beneath the water in lumps of some
hundredweight each, which had been formed by the oysters clustering and
adhering together. It so happened that our party were unanimous in the
love of these creatures, and we accordingly exerted ourselves to roll
out of the water a large mass; which having accomplished, we discovered
to our dismay that nothing but one penknife was possessed among us.
This we knew was a useless weapon against such armor; however, in our
endeavors to perform impossibilities, we tickled the oyster and broke
the knife. After gazing for seine time in blank despair at our useless
prize, a bright thought struck one of the party, and drawing his ramrod
he began to screw it Into the weakest part of an oyster; this, however,
was proof, and the ramrod broke.

Stupid enough it may appear, but it was full a quarter of an hour
before any of us thought of a successful plan of attack. I noticed a
lot of drift timber scattered upon the island, and then the right idea
was hit. We gathered the wood, which was bleached and dry, an we piled
it a few feet to windward of the mass of oysters. Striking a li