546 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



day, form the wealth of the parc-owners, had disappeared ? 

 As M. Platel, who has written a very complete and exact 

 paper on Ostriculture in Morbihan, from which I have 

 borrowed very valuable information, judiciously remarks, 

 we cannot too often remember how much perseverance 

 and care it required on the part of the Maritime Adminis- 

 tration in the districts of Lorient, Vannes, and Auray, to 

 save the wrecks of that wealth which is disseminated in 

 the Rivers of Morbihan. 



My report on Auray would certainly be incomplete if 

 I did not render a tribute to the devotedness of the Com- 

 missaire of the Inscription Maritime, M. Coste, whose praise 

 is in every mouth. This honourable functionary, prompted 

 by the spirit of the administrative instructions, encourages 

 and advises on every side. 



It would be impossible for me, in this short statement, 

 to pass in review all the establishments on the River Auray. 

 I will therefore take as a model one of the most complete 

 and best organised with regard to reproduction, and the 

 one which I have perhaps studied the most ; it is the 

 establishment of M. de Th6venard. 



The seat of the works of M. Thevenard, Mayor of 

 Auray, is at a place called Le Rocher. This concession 

 comprises pares of reproduction, and some claires for 

 rearing and preservation. These pares are established, the 

 former on a bottom of mud three or four metres thick, the 

 latter on a more solid soil. Buildings erected on the banks 

 of the river serve as workshops for detaching, sorting, and 

 liming, and at the same time as places for keeping the 

 oyster-cases. 



In front of these buildings, and only a few metres 

 from low-water mark, claires have been dug which can 

 retain water, and in which during the winter is placed the 

 harvest of the season, to preserve it from the cold. 



