OYSTER CULTURE IN ITALY. 673 



previously explored, and found to be most favorable for the 

 preservation and increase of the mollusk, especially near 

 Seyne, the others in suspended baskets. Collectors, 

 consisting of fascines or pieces of wood, were placed around 

 the reproducing oysters. The oysters distributed in the 

 improvised parks and those contained in the baskets acted 

 differently; the latter spawned abundantly, and grew rapidly 

 during the entire summer ; the others spawned but little, 

 or at least their spawn was without vitality ; they thrived 

 miserably during the season following their spawning, and 

 finally perished. This was the fate of them all. This 

 result, though not a negative one, having been deemed 

 unsatisfactory, the experiments were, too hastily perhaps, 

 abandoned. 



In order that the fatal influences should not always 

 exist as a check, to oyster culture in the Mediterranean in 

 the future, it is expedient to seek the causes that have led 

 to them. In the first place, it must be remembered that 

 M. Coste could not do everything. He had charge, simul- 

 taneously, of the attempts at oyster culture in the ocean and 

 the restocking of our fresh-water streams ; he was organizing 

 a model fish-cultural establishment at Huningue, at the 

 same time that he was pursuing in his laboratory at the 

 College of France scientific researches, which he afterwards 

 made known in his lectures; finally, he was engaged in the 

 preparation of interesting reports. He was thus unable to 

 observe with all the necessary assiduity the different phases 

 of the experiment, to watch its progress, and to modify it 

 in case of need. Notwithstanding the zeal and activity 

 displayed by the persons to whom he had given his 

 instructions, were they competent to fill the place of the 

 master? Secondly, would it not have been preferable to 



choose as reproducers oysters from the Mediterranean, 



w 



