Perhaps the largest oyster ever taken on the coast of the
United States, or which we have any record of, is noticed
in the Mobile Advertiser in the month of April, 1840. This
says : " The large oyster taken by Xavier Franfois, while
oystering on Monday last, was brought up from the wharf
on a dray last evening. An oyster measuring three feet one
inch in length, and twenty-three and a half inches across the
widest part of it, is a curiosity. Mr. Ayres, the purchaser,
will exhibit it at the Alhambra this day at eleven o'clock,
when it will be opened and served up in his usual good style."

An oyster of pretty good size, out of a lot of East Rivera^
was opened by Braisted, of Jefferson Market, January 27,
1865, which contained a small fish known as the spotted
gunnely or butter-fishy measuring six inches in length, and a
half an inch in depth, flat or compressed sides, and a dorsal
fin extending from back of the head to the tail, filled with
sharp spinous rays ; the anal fin from about the centre or
vent, also to the tail, with two small pectoral fins, and a
roundish tail. It was quite dead.
