OYSTER CULTURE IN ITALY. 677 



PENINSULA OF GIENS. 

 ESTABLISHMENT or MESSRS. GASQUET. 



Messrs. Gasquet were the first to seriously attempt 

 putting into execution the happy idea of cultivating other 

 shell-fish than the oyster and mussel, and the experiments 

 which they have been making, with the most painstaking 

 and laudable efforts, since the beginning of the year 1877, 

 on the north coast of the Peninsula of Giens, deserve to be 

 made known. The oyster and the mussel are also among 

 the molluscs raised at Giens. This marine establishment 

 has been founded on the banks of a concession, measuring 

 not less than 10 hectares (25 acres). The shores slope 

 gently, and the sea-weed, with which they are almost 

 everywhere covered, converts them, as it were, into marine 

 meadows, similar to the " crassats" of Arcachon, which are 

 known at Toulon by the name of "'mates''' The soil is 

 formed of a mixture of clay, sand, and calcareous deposits. 

 The proximity of aquatic plants for the raising of shell-fish 

 and other fish offers undeniable advantages, particularly in 

 the Mediterranean. In the ocean the breeding pares are, 

 at times, almost entirely uncovered, and the tide furnishes 

 them with well aerated water. The tide also brings to the 

 shell-fish confined there abundant and fresh food from all 

 directions. The case is different in the Mediterranean. 

 At less than 50 meters (160 feet) from the shore, except 

 during storms, the bottom is never brought into contact 

 with the outer air, and the animals which have not the 

 power of locomotion are forced to feed on little else than 

 what grows upon the bottom within a very restricted area. 

 But in the present case aquatic plants tend to render less 

 noticeable the effects resulting from the absence of tides. 

 They always set free a small quantity of oxygen and pro- 



