There is consolation, however, for all concerned. Let the humanitarian fishermen, oyster-dredgers, merchants, and consumers, console themselves with the vast difference between the helpless imperfect mollusc and the higher classes of animals. In the case of the former we swallow the animal, scarcely thinking of its animal nature. It is the denizen of another element, lives in a medium in which we cannot exist, presents itself in a form, so to speak, degraded--an obscure vitality, motions undecided, and habits scarcely discernible. We may therefore see the oyster mutilated, mutilate them oneself, grind them, and swallow them, without emotion or remorse. A learned naturalist dwelling on the sea-shore possessed himself one day of a dozen oysters. He wished to study their organization; he turned them, and turned them again, examined their several parts inside and out. He made drawings of and described them, and, having satisfied himself that he had exhausted Science in observing, he swallowed them; the interesting bivalves had lost nothing of their excellence, and the examination did not prejudice the consummation. * * * * * Oyster fishing is pursued in a very different manner in different countries. Round Minorca, divers, with hammers attached to the right hand, descend to the depth of a dozen fathoms, and bring up in their left hand as many of the bivalves as they can carry, two fishermen, usually associating for the purpose, diving alternately until the boat is filled. On the English and French coasts the dredge is employed, as represented in PL. XII. This operation is necessary to keep down vegetation, which would stifle the oysters; the engine is of iron, and is very heavy. It is thrown overboard, and descends to the bottom of the sea, which it ploughs and scrapes up, detaching the oysters, and throwing them into a net attached to the dredge. In this process oysters, large and small, are torn from their native bed, some going into the net, but a larger number, old and young, are torn from their native bed, and buried in the mud. It would be difficult to imagine a more destructive process; and when the habits of the oyster are considered, it is evidently one admirably contrived to destroy the race.