OYSTER CULTURE IN FRANCE. 62 1 



more than eight hundred upon one piece of tile, the size of 

 which was barely one-fiftieth part of an entire tile. This 

 time the success was complete. 



Until the end of the month of August, when the 

 oysters had nearly all spatted, the spat continued to fall 

 with equal abundance upon all the collectors it met with 

 indiscriminately, such as debris of tiles, bits of wood and 

 planks, &c. 



As no doubt could exist, the pessimists asked them- 

 selves whether our brood would grow and develop itself to 

 the size of that collected naturally on the crassats of the 

 Gironde. Our answer to this objection was by sending 

 some tiles to the pares of Arcachon, where they remained 

 a month and a half. 



These tiles, or fragments of tiles, appeared at the end 

 of September at the Bordeaux Exhibition, side by side with 

 those sent by MM. Tripota and Gassiau. 



It has thus been seen that the spat born in the close 

 claire at the beginning of July measured from two to three 

 centimetres, while that collected in the salt marshes at the 

 end of July and the month of August had attained the 

 dimension of a centimetre, and a centimetre and a half. 

 Finally, in the first days of October, we had the honour to 

 present the Minister of Marine with a tile upon which 

 could easily be counted two thousand little oysters, from 

 one to two centimetres. 



It remained for us to make a last demonstration. It 

 was necessary to prove that the spat collected did not 

 come from the district of the Gironde, but was the result 

 of the artificial fecundations effected by our labours. This 

 proof was evidently superfluous after what had occurred in 

 the confined and unaerated water of the claire, where we 

 were first established. We knew, moreover, that the 



