OYSTER CULTURE IN GERMANY. 653 



gathering of the young broods and for the raising of the 

 same as the Bay of Arcachon, but not as regards temper- 

 ature and the depth of water. 



In the Bay of Arcachon the difference between 

 ordinary high and low tide is 4/5 meters, and during a 

 storm a meter more. But along our North Sea coast during 

 a storm the water rises with the tide even more than twice 

 as high as during ordinary flood-tide. The power of the 

 water during a storm, as compared with the power of the 

 water during an ordinary flood-tide, is much greater along 

 our coast than in the Bay of Arcachon. Hence, we would 

 be obliged to give to our oyster-beds a much greater 

 firmness than the French breeders have to give to theirs. 

 We would also be obliged to place them so far out in the 

 sea that they would be entirely covered with water, even at 

 the lowest ordinary tide, and also give them sufficient 

 stability to withstand, during a storm, a rise of water of 

 from 2 to 2 '5 meters, as well as the great and powerful 

 force of this water-mass. Beds thus laid down would 

 cost much more than the ditched and planked ones of 

 Arcachon. But even if they were so placed as to bid 

 defiance to the most severe flood-storm, they would indeed 

 hardly suffice to protect the breeding oysters from being 

 covered with mud and sand ; and thus one flood-storm, or 

 storm in connection with a flood-tide, might destroy the 

 accumulated oysters of many generations. 



. . . . If the situation of the free sea-flats is not 

 suitable for the formation of oyster-beds, perhaps there is 

 still a possibility of artificial oyster-breeding being carried 

 on inside of the dykes which protect the fertile marsh-land 

 along the German coast from the encroachments of the 

 waters of the North Sea. For this purpose basins would 

 have to be dug out inside of the dyke and placed in 



