684 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



Lake Berre presents the best conditions for the breed- 

 ing of edible shell-fish and other fish. The clovisse, the 

 praire, &c., live there naturally ; mussels of an excellent 

 quality are sufficiently abundant to make it profitable for 

 forty boats to spend a large part of their time in fishing for 

 them. Nor is the oyster a total stranger to this locality, 

 for some were formerly found there, and in the neighbour- 

 hood, near Port-de-Bouc, very fine ones still exist. The 

 shores are formed of shell sand, very rich in lime, and in 

 many places are covered with marine plants common to the 

 most fertile oyster-cultural stations of the ocean, such as 

 Marennes, Tremblade, the island of Oleron, &c. The lake 

 receives several streams and rivers, and numerous pure and 

 fresh springs are found on its banks. Its water, which is 

 neither too salt nor too fresh, never attains an excessive 

 temperature so as to endanger the life of the aquatic 

 animals which industry might confide to it. Its density is 

 very variable ; in the month of October, 1877, towards the 

 centre of the lake it ranged from 2. 8 to 3, and on the 

 banks it was about 2. 5 to 2. 6. 



Lake Berre would not, however, in all its parts serve 

 for the culture of shell-fish or for the establishment of fish- 

 cultural reserves ; in the first place those localities must be 

 excepted which are too deep, or at too great a distance 

 from the shore, and those in which such violent currents 

 prevail as to render it impossible, as shown by experience, 

 to maintain there pieces of apparatus, and, finally, the 

 localities which are most exposed to the northwest winds. 

 But there are to the west some sections of coast where 

 violent winds and currents rarely prevail, and it is on one 

 of these that the commissioner of maritime registry at Mar- 

 tigues has established a pare, by way of experiment, to 

 attempt the acclimation, breeding, and raising of oysters. 



