LOST OYSTER
An oyster, estimated by
the ridges or water lines of it's shell, at least 85 year old was
in
the possession of a New
York City seafood dealer who told of it, thus:
“ It was dug in the
Delaware Bay, three years ago. That oyster has intelligence, I
had placed
it in a tank of salt water,
and it opened and shut it self just like it was it was enjoying a
bath.
One day it was brought out
of the tank, laid on a work bench, so it could be studied with a
microscope, and there it
lay, sort of dumb like, dreadfully. As I stepped aside to wait on
a customer,
the store tomcat walked up
to the oyster and began slapping at it with his paws. Suddenly, this
oyster
opened and caught the cats
tail, then closed. The tom cat bounded off like a rocket,
bumping the
bivalve along the stone
street but the octogenarian clung to the cats trail. I never saw
the oyster nor
the tom cat again.”
Source: August 1885
issue of the Milford Chronicle, quoted by Mrs Miller, found in the
History
of Sussex County, Sailing
on the Delaware section, by Dick Carter, July 1976.
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