Old Oyster

My daughter and I were taking photographs along one of the docks in east Norwalk yesterday and I found this oyster shell in a pile of discards -- big by today's standards, I think.

I wrote in my book that 400 years ago, oysters grew to be a foot long and lived in beds that stretched for miles. This one was six inches long (I took the smaller one next to it from Bailey Beach, in Rowayton). Judging from the grwth rings, it was at least 27 years old.