528 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



days, and retains for some time the sea-water which its 

 shell contains. These qualities are due to the origin and 

 the kind of oyster as much as to the methods of rearing. 



The methods of training in use at Cancale are like 

 those employed by the rearers of La Hougue. 



The oyster-beds of the Bay of Mont St. Michel, from 

 which these delicate oysters come, are the most fertile in 

 the Channel. They comprise the banks of Corbiere-6-les- 

 Chaudieres, Le Bas-de-1'Eau, Le Vivier-6-le-Mont, L'Orne- 

 6-le-Moulin, called La Raie, Saint-Georges, Le Beauveau- 

 6-le-Mont, and finally, the unassigned part of the bank, 

 which the State has constituted a reserve, and which serves 

 as a demarcation between the beds of the districts of Can- 

 cale and Granville. 



Cancale is not merely a place of deposit ; the rearing 

 of the oyster is also practised there from the time that it is 

 gathered on the open banks, or gleaned upon the beach by 

 fishermen, until the moment when it has acquired the pro- 

 perties which cause it to be sought for our tables. 



The conceded grounds spread over an area of 172 

 hectares; they are distributed into 1276 portions, and 

 divided into pares and layings. The former are situated 

 rather low in the sea, and their fences are covered every 

 year with spat. The little oysters, whose size prevents their 

 being offered for sale, are put here to grow. In the pares 

 adult oysters are kept and fed. All the concessions are 

 bounded by a double palisade, which saves them from the 

 ravages that the strong current might make. There exist 

 in the whole Bay of Mont St. Michel two elements of des- 

 truction, against which the parc-owners must constantly 

 struggle wind and mud. The winds from the open, the 

 violence of which is such that the oysters are often carried 



