ARTIFICIAL OYSTER CULTURE. I I 15 



also, of the commoner kinds which the French workman 

 can afford to buy. The Parisian " ouvrier ' is not so well 

 off as is the British artisan in respect of "a free breakfast 

 table," for butter, bread, sugar, tea, and coffee, cost more 

 than they do here ; but he has a far larger choice in the 

 purchase of " extras," such as vegetables, mollusca (of both 

 land and sea species) not because he is less taxed, but 

 because his countrymen utilise far more cleverly the 

 natural resources around them. It is partly owing to the 

 desire of the French Government to encourage all indus- 

 tries that tend to foster a love of the sea, that oysters are 

 cheaper than with us. It is the same desire which makes 

 our neighbours so keen to keep their hold of the Newfound- 

 land fisheries. The fisheries breed seamen, and that is 

 what is wanted. So, likewise, any coast industry that may 

 make a man enter a boat, hoist a sail, or become even in 

 the least degree amphibious is wisely encouraged. 



We in Britain have not the same necessity or tempta- 

 tion to foster " marins," or frequenters of the sea and 

 sea-shore. They are necessarily numerous among us, who 

 are a people crowded on an island so small that an 

 American is said to have confessed himself as quite afraid 

 to move around for fear that he should fall off. It is the 

 people who are crowded on shore who take to the 

 sea, and Britain has so many who are squeezed into the 

 salt water, that it is not necessary for her to encourage her 



J O 



sea-coast dwellers to exist by the fosterage of seamenship. 

 (w] But it becoming increasingly important for us to 



(w) With all due respect to his Lordship the Marquis, I think he is 

 somewhat rash in his conclusion, for, according to Talfourd Chater, 

 "The rating of Fishermen was regulated in 1880. In the Merchant 

 Service, a seaman to be rated A.B. must have served four years before 

 the mast (43 and 44 Viet. c. 17, s. 7). Fishermen who have been 



