aficionados (or at least the more aesthetically minded among them) sometimes refer to this as an 'Apollo's belt' or 'Adonis girdle' – a classic case of reality mirroring art, rather than the other way round.

There’s a nice example, potentially, in San Francisco Bay, which prior to the Gold Rush in the 1850s teemed with Olympia oysters.

How you laughed when you admitted your lies to me, and I promised to make you sit one day and I would pretend to be your lover, bring you tea while you soaked in the bath, lightly scented raspberry candles at your feet, and declare in my deepest voice, My darling, your every wish, your every command is mine. I am at your service eternally.

To the south, the vast geometrical deserts of Arabian nomads, a redoubt of feral movement, of fickle winds, of open space, of saddle leather—home to the wild Bedouin tribes.