SUPPLEMENT. 1249 



the fishing during the other months in greater or less 

 degree, and the prohibition of the removal of undersized 

 oysters, except to the etalages, or storing beds of the neigh- 

 bourhood, have not been enforced at Cancale." 1 



The bay is marked out into a series of beds, named 

 from west to east, Bas de 1'Eau, Corbieres, Vivier-6-le Mont 

 La Raie, St. George, Beauvais-6-le Mont ; while, beyond 

 the last, is a large area left as a reserve and not allowed to 

 be fished. 



From 1862 to 1866, inclusively, hardly any spat was 

 observed in the bay. In 1866, the northern part of the 

 Raie bank, which had already shown some signs of 

 increase in 1865, produced a considerable spat. In 1867, 

 it was fished and yielded 1,007,000 oysters. But, in the 

 following years, so large a number of dogwhelks showed 

 themselves upon it, that it was thought better to fish the 

 bed than to let the oysters be fruitlessly destroyed. The 

 dogwhelks were cleared away and the bank, which though 

 much thinned, still held oysters, was left to rest in 1870. 

 In 1871, however, all the oysters had disappeared, while 

 cockles had taken their place, and remained up to the time 

 of the report. 



In 1871, the southern half of the Raie bank, which 

 had produced no oysters since 1862, showed so many, 

 that in 1871-72 it yielded a crop of 2,070,000 ; and from 

 that time, though fished in alternate years, it became the 

 richest bed in the bay, and in 1876 showed a large quan- 

 tity of brood over its whole extent. While the southern 

 half of La Raie thus became productive, St. George, which 

 adjoins it, and from which it probably derived the colony 

 which peopled it in 1869, became sterile, without any 



r Report of the Select Committee on Oyster Fisheries, jth July, 



1876, Appendix, pp. 260 and 261. 



PP 



