Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 May 1877 — How the Oyster Builds His Shell. [ARTICLE]

How the Oyster Builds His Shell.

The body of an oyster 1 is a 1 poor weak thing, apparently incapable of doing anything at all; yet, what a-marvelous house an oyster builds around his delicate frame! When the oyster is first born ite is a very simple, delicate dot, as it and yet he is born with his two shells upon him. For some unknown reason, he always fixes himself on his round' stf6ll—-never on his flat shell; and, being once fixed, he begins to grow, but he only grows in summer. Inspect an oyster-shell closely, and it will be seen that it is marked with distinct lines. As the rings we observe in the section of the trunk of a tree denote years of growth, so does the marking of an oyster tell us how mapy years he has passed in his “ bed ’’ at jfio bottom of these*. ’ . <>■ ? £ .a >3 Suppose anovster was born June 15, . 1870. He would go outgrowing up to the first line we see well marked; be would then stop for the winter. In the summer of 1871 he would more than, double.his size. In 1872 he would add to this house. In 1873 and 1874 he Would again go on building, till he was dredged jm in the middle of his work in 1815, wfien he would be five and a half years old. The way in whicn an- oyster builds his shell is a pretty sight. I havd watched it fte-* quently. The beard or fringe ojau oyster is not only his breathing organ—*. «., his lungs—but his feeding organ, $y Whteh J be conveys the food to his complicated; mouth with his four lips. When the warm, calm days of June come, the oyster opens his shell, and by means of his fringe begins bniiding an 1 additional story to. hia house. This; he does by depositing very fine pirticles of carbonate of lima, till they qt last form a •substance as th ip As silver paperand exceedingly fragile; then he adds more and mare. tili at last the uew shelf isat least as hard as the old shell. When oystersare growing in their shells they must be fhtindled rery carefully, ks the hew'fa-dwth bf ’stfell will cut like'woken glass, and a wound on a finger from an oyster-shell is often very troublesome. — Prank Suckland. • - 4