OYSTER CULTURE IN FRANCE. 509 



tific laboratory, where the 600 watercourses which divide 

 the soil offer a field of labour of not less than 700,000 

 hectares ; in France, I say, pisciculture is not followed up 

 with continuous or general attention. We can, however, 

 at the present day, call the attention of those nations who 

 have surpassed us in the art of cultivating waters to the 

 progress which ostriculture has made on our shores. 



The cultivation of oysters was, without doubt, prac- 

 tised in very ancient times. It is conducted now in nearly 

 every locality where shell-fish form more or less an article 

 of subsistence, but it is not, as with us, subjected to indus- 

 trial regulations. 



I should state that the Department of Marine is the 

 department which has given France her oyster industry, 

 the credit of first efforts and perseverance in the enter- 

 prise and the honour of obtaining the results shown in my 

 Report. 



The idea of establishing special places for retaining 

 and preserving the spat which the oysters emit at the 

 moment of gestation, is comparatively recent. It originated 

 with a high functionary in your department, who reduced 

 the theory to practice. 



In 1853, when M. Coste was visiting the oyster 

 grounds of Lake Fusaro, and was noticing there some 

 attempts at ostriculture of a timid and unmethodical cha- 

 racter, M. de Bon, then Commissaire de la Marine, and 

 chef du Service at St. Servan, was occupying himself with 

 the reconstruction of the old oyster-beds at the mouth of 

 the Ranee, and in the roads of St. Malo, by means of 

 shells taken from the banks of the Bay of Cancale. He 

 applied himself to the pursuit of these experiments with 

 great perseverance. His efforts were crowned with suc- 

 cess, and it is in his power to prove a fact, till then con- 



