BIG OYSTERS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3267, 21 December 1881, Page 4

BIG OYSTERS.

Among the discoveries made recently in tho great Dead Sea of the West were some gigantic oyster shells, more than six feet long, each pair of which once co rained an animal that the average boy could not lift. In other localities shells of but one valve ■were found fifteen feet long, and each of these were inhabited by a cuttle-fish that forced itself through the water by a method like that used to shoot a rocket up into the air, and some authorities say that these cuttle-fish attained a length of even thirty feet. These long fellows had a long name, Orthocerotite, and they had 9. cousin, the Ammonite, which grew as large as a cart •wheel. Such were some of the shells of a thousand years ago ; to-day the only really large shell is of the clam_ family. It is named Tridancnagigas, and is found in the Pacific Ocean, the length of its life being 60 or 70 years. It groW9 imbedded in the coral, and is fastened to the rocks by a cord called the byssus, which is so tough that it can only be cut with an axe. The shells themselves are six feet long, each weighing more than 250 lbs.; while the animal part only often weighs 30 or 40 lbs. When alive, the Tridacna lies with its valves ajar, capturing any food that may pass within the scalloped edges. A shark was once caught in this way. Swimming along in search of food, he unwarily passed into the doorway of the great dam's house, his tail rudely striking the ani_ial. Like a flash the tremendous jaws snapped together, squeezing the man-eater as if he were in a vice, and rendering him utterly powerless. As the tide went down, the shark's head appeared above water, thrashing about and churning up the sea. The hubbub attracted the attention of some natives, who soon captured both, the shark and clam.