668 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



from three to four hundred paces on each side. The pares 

 are farmed out by the company to the fishermen, who 

 devote themselves to the culture of the molluscs, at the rate 

 of one franc (20 cents) per seven palmes (about 6 feet). 

 All concessions are marked off by strong posts driven into 

 the bottom. In the spaces included within this first line of 

 division there are other parallel lines of posts, arranged at 

 intervals of fourteen palmes (about 12 feet). Of their uses 

 we shall hear more further on. 



The arrangement of oyster pares is like that of the 

 pares for mussels, with this difference, that they do not 

 generally extend quite so far into the sea. Beyond certain 

 depths oyster culture presents great difficulties and entails 

 great expense. These pares are divided by stakes into 

 equal squares of fourteen palmes (12 feet) on each side. 

 They are entirely devoted to the raising of oysters. Breed- 

 ing cannot succeed there on account of the large quantity 

 of mud brought down by the current into the lower part of 

 the Little Sea. Nevertheless, the adult oysters accomplish 

 their generative functions there ; but the young ones, on 

 leaving the mother oyster, do not find collectors suitable 

 to receive them and fall down upon the muddy bottom ; 

 the stakes of the pares and the cords which they sustain 

 are speedily covered with a thin layer of mud, which pre- 

 vents the young oysters from adhering. Moreover, in the 

 upper portion of the Little Sea isolated oysters, called 

 " horse-feet," are sometimes found in the natural state, and 

 these seem to leave traces of their spawning, doubtless on 

 account of the purity of the water and the cleanliness of 

 the bottom. But these molluscs are constantly displaced 

 by the currents, and it would be quite hazardous to count 

 upon a regular harvest of young ones. This kind of oyster, 

 which is still found in very small numbers in the roadstead, 



