STATISTICAL AND OTHER INFORMATION. 879 



oysters were protected from their enemies, and care was 

 exercised that during hot and cold weather they should 

 always be kept under water. 



With the earlier methods very many of the young 

 oysters were destroyed by their enemies, and often, during 

 a few unfavourable summer or winter days, when a low 

 tide left the beds dry, all the young oysters died. The 

 extraordinary yield of oysters in the Bay of Arcachon, and 

 at other points along the coast of Brittany, as a result of 

 the improved method of artificial oyster-breeding, has 

 very materially lessened the price of oysters in France, 

 despite the greater consumption occasioned by this abun- 

 dance. In 1873 oysters sold for 43 francs per thousand, 

 while in 1876 the price was 25 francs per thousand. On 

 this account only those oyster-breeders who attend per- 

 sonally to the work, and are assisted in it by their families, 

 make anything over and above all expenses. Those who 

 undertake the breeding of oysters, relying upon outside 

 help to do the great amount of work necessary, can gain 

 returns scarcely worthy of the name ; at least this is the 

 case in the Bay of Arcachon, as I know from trustworthy 

 sources. 



The cost of transforming a hectare of sea-bottom 

 along this coast into an oyster-bed, together with the 

 necessary apparatus for oyster-culture, and a guard-vessel 

 as required by the government, is not less than seven to 

 eight thousand francs, (b) 



The very celebrated rich oyster-beds of the Bay of 

 Cancale, on the coast of Normandy, have produced, accor- 

 ding to official reports, the following number of oysters : 



(b) " The Oyster and Oyster Culture." Mobius, pp. 18-19. 



