They were packed in brine, preferrably seawater. For short trips, no sawdust
and ice packing around them would be required, a well ventilated boxcar
would suffice. Apparently oysters are fairly hardy and live reasonably
healthily (if you're not the oyster)in seawater until the oxygen runs out.
Out here on the prairie, they were much better fare than salt beef or pork,
or pickled pork, for that matter. I confess I was surprised that the oyster
bowl was standard to the quartermaster's mess. There's a whole lens of
broken ones in one of our historic dump sites.

-----Original Message-----
From: Carl Barna [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 2:34 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: oyster canz #2


Howdy --

In those cases where the oysters were shipped in barrels, what were they
packed in?  Sawdust ? Brine?

Were the barrels themselves packed in ice? (I'm assuming this was before
the advent of railroad ice-bunker reefer cars.)

Carl Barna
Regional Historian
BLM Colorado State Office