OYSTER CULTURE IN FRANCE. 489 



watchman to guard the crops, and see that all goes on with 

 propriety and good faith, (c) 



In his interesting Magazine Article on " Oyster Cul- 

 ture," the Marquis of Lome says : " In France, especially 

 at Arcachon, it is usual to place the ' guardians ' in covered 

 boats, anchored near the grounds where the oysters are 

 laid down. These boats are large and comfortable enough 

 for the guardian and his family, and constant vigilance is 

 necessary on his part to prevent poachers from harrying 

 the places where the oysters are lying. He is usually 

 armed with a fowling-piece or musket, and the feeling of 

 the people connected with the oyster industry being against 

 the poachers, as filchers of the earnings of themselves and 

 of their wives and children, scant ceremony is shown to 

 any intruder. Not long ago, where along those shallows 

 and sandbanks the guardian boats lie like African waggons, 

 with their white curved roofs, a shot was heard at night, 

 and little notice was taken. When in the morning an 

 inquiry was made, the fact that a man had been fired at 

 excited but little remark, all that was said being, ' It was 

 Jacque, the oyster-poacher, we believe ; anyway, the tide 

 came up quickly and took away the body.' 



And this efficient watch is allowed, although the pro- 

 perty guarded is nominally only given by grace and favour 

 of the State for a time. When any person obtains permis- 

 sion to " cultivate ' within a certain area, he is bound 

 before a year has passed to have commenced the works 

 necessary, and he is told that no right of property is given 

 to him in respect of his marine allotment, but only a right 

 of use, " essentially precarious, and revocable at the first 

 requisition by the administration, without compensation." 



(c) " Harvest of the Sea." 



