MOLLUSCA. 173 



now lost to commerce for want of some contrivance 

 to prevent their escape and inevitable destruction. 



Every oyster, I have stated, 'produces from one 

 to two million of young ; out of these not more than 

 ten or twelve attach themselves to their parent's 

 shell ; all the rest are dispersed, perish in the mud, 

 or are devoured by fish ! Now, if bundles made of 

 the branches of trees, faggots of brushwood, or any 

 similar objects, be let down and secured to the 

 oyster banks by weights, the young oysters will, on 

 issuing from the parent's valves, attach themselves 

 to these faggots, and may, on attaining perfect 

 growth, be taken up with the branches, and trans- 

 ported to places where it is desirable to establish 

 new oyster-beds.* 



I witnessed the success of this experiment made 

 upon the coast of Brittany, not very long ago. If 

 the process of transportation take place at the 

 proper period, success is almost certain. Between 

 the months of March and April, 1858, about 

 3,000,000 oysters, taken from different parts of the 

 sea, were distributed in ten longitudinal beds in 

 the Bay of St. Brieuc, on the coast of Brittany. 

 The bottom was previously covered with old oyster- 

 shells, and boughs of trees arranged in bundles. 



* I called attention to some of these facts (which I consider of 

 importance to oyster- breeders), on December 7, 1861, in an English 

 periodical. 



