CONSERVATION OF DEEP SEA BEDS. 1045 



way in competition with the cheaper sail-power. It is 

 very difficult to regulate the speed of the engines, and the 

 dredges do not bear so well when worked from a steamer. 

 Still they have two great advantages, one of being able to 

 work in any direction, irrespective of the direction of the 

 wind, and the other in not being delayed by calms and 

 contrary winds in proceeding to and coming from the 

 fisheries. Steam dredgers with sail-power would probably 

 be the most advantageous, but we have not yet seen this 

 class of vessel employed. 



Hand dredges are allowed by the French Government 

 to be used at some places on the coast. The fishermen 

 and fisherwomen are allowed to use these dredges as far 

 out as they can walk, and they tow them along by a band 

 round the shoulders or waist ; the young oysters thus caught 

 are laid down on the fattening beds ; and cleaning, sorting, 

 &c., gives employment to many hundred people. There 

 are no pits, so called, though the ground being composed 

 principally of mud, the oysters are kept wet, even at 

 extreme low water. 



M. le Commissaire de Marine at Cancale told us that 

 they had lately to imprison and fine one of the fishermen. 

 The man was very tall and powerful, and at low spring 

 tides he would go seaward until his chin was level with the 

 water, and would then seize the dredge-rope between his 

 teeth, and thus almost do the work of a dredging boat. 

 As the oysters are most plentiful on the edge of the bank, 

 in about six feet of water, the man by using this means 

 obtained a far greater quantity of young brood than the 

 other fishing people. At first there appeared to be no law 

 to prevent this, but the difficulty was overcome by prose- 

 cuting him for using a dredge which was not a hand 

 dredge. 



