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14

To the Ocean.

Image of him who formed thee! all unknown,

Save that thou art deep, fathomless, and free, As first thou wert, when thy broad billows shone Upon thy bosom, changeless, boundless sea!

I, trembling, pause upon the sanded shore,

And think of the rich treasures which within thee shine;

Earth has its wealth, but all her glittering ore

Would fail to purchase those bright pearls of thine.

The monarch rules not thee; thy glistening tide

In childish playfulness sweeps his domain,

And burying in its foam his earthly pride,

Smiles at his sovereign fears, and backward falls again.

Suns set, moons change, and stars forget to shine,

Empires have flourished, but are now a name,

Ages decayed; but none of these are thine;

A myriad years have swept o'er thee, and thou art all the same.

K.

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and therefore should the track of a steamer not allow the coast

line to be continually present to the view, it will be the less

regretted when we call to mind its level, fenny character, and absolute poverty of prospect. Turning Foulness Point, we may indeed stop to remind the tourist that here, where the river Crouch pours its slender stream into the German Ocean, is situated the little marine village of Burnham, where oysters are carefully preserved and fed for the London market, and where the "real natives," that so delight the epicurean palate of the oyster-eater, are cultivated on a large scale for home and foreign consumption. There is nothing in the village itself to require description, but a cursory glance at the famous oyster-beds within its limits may be neither uninteresting nor out of place. In both England and France the season for oyster-fishing is restricted by the law. In the former country the time allowed for collecting the spawn from the sea is May, when the dredgers may take all they can procure, but after that month they are liable to be convicted of felony if they disturb it, and are only allowed to take such oysters as are the size of half-a-crown. The spawn, or spat, as it is technically called, is dredged up at Burnham, and, if not too small, they separate it from the shells and stones to which it is adhering, and these they are obliged again to throw into the water to prevent the beds being destroyed. The spat is thrown into creeks or into shallow waters along the shore, to increase in size and fatten, and in such situations is considered private property. The most destructive animal in an oyster-bed is the sea-star, which clasps its rays round the shell and perseveres till it has sucked out the inhabitant. The mussel is said to be another enemy. The oyster frequently contains shining intestinal worms, which may be seen by opening the shell in the dark. The fish is viviparous, and the young are produced with a perfectly

formed shell. They are, when first emitted, quite transparent, and swim with great quickness by means of a membrane extending out of the shell. So small are they in this state, that Leeuwenhoeck computed that one hundred and twenty of them in a row would extend only an inch, and consequently a globular body, whose diameter is an inch, would, if they were round, be equal in size to one million seven hundred and twenty-eight thousand of them. The vulgar opinion, and that on which the restraining laws have been framed, is that the period of spawning is May, at which time the spawn is found adhering to the rocks; but as the young are found in the parents perfectly formed and alive in the month of August, this is most probably the period of parturition, though it be not till May that they become fixed or sufficiently grown to be seen by the common observer. At this time they are little larger than a fourpenny piece, and being comparatively hard and firm, have been well compared to a drop of candle-grease in water. In two, or at farthest three years, they are fit for the table. The age to which it attains is probably great, but, after having arrived at its full size, the valves are thickened instead of being increased in length or breadth. From May to July the male and female oyster are said to be “sick," and are in thin and poor condition, but by the end of August they have again recovered, and are then fat and in season. The fishermen distinguish the sexes by the colour of the fringe, that of the male being black or dark-coloured, and that of the female white. Sand is as prejudicial to them as a mixture of fresh water is advantageous. Of the quantity consumed in England we have no statistics that are either certain or continuous. In 1844 the quantity bred and taken on the Essex coast, and consumed chiefly in the metropolis, amounted to

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thirty thousand bushels, but the yearly quantity is subject of course to very great fluctuations. The consumption at Paris is estimated at one million dozen annually, selling on the average at six sous per dozen. The oyster trade at Burnham is the chief means of maintenance not only to those who reside about the place, but to nearly one half of the population on the adjacent coast.

Bradwell, Mersea, and Brightlingsea, next passed, are too insignificant in size, and too deficient in accommodation, to rank as places of marine resort, though they are severally in close vicinage to the German Ocean. In fact, as before hinted, the shore about here is not very inviting to bathers, the rocky declivities being covered with treacherous entanglements of sea-weed, and the shoals affording a basis of more mud than sand. The damp exhalations, too, arising from the marshy nature of the land, render the climate not favourable for a long sojourn, and agues and fevers are not seldom attendants upon the inhabitants of a locality so badly drained and so unfavourably situated. The appellations of Great Holland and Little Holland, given to two parishes adjoining the sea at this part, are sufficient in themselves to describe the general character of the district, and it is not until we reach Walton-which is now to the summer visitors of Essex what Margate and Ramsgate used to be to the rambling citizens of London-that we meet with anything worth describing, or really come to a picturesque spot that has in it the necessary elements of attraction.

Walton-le- Soken, or, as it is now more harmoniously called, Walton-on-the-Naze, is a rapidly-improving watering-place, which, as it becomes better known, will be more frequented. Its peculiar appellation of "Soken" was derived from some

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