632 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



at the mouth of one of our rivers, the Charente and the 

 Adour for instance, with which we are most familiar, were 

 established basins for hatching and incubation, if during 

 three months there were turned into these reservoirs the 

 fertilised products of some thousands of oysters, and if the 

 embryos resulting therefrom were allowed to be dispersed 

 freely over the river, if collectors, tiles, stones or shells 

 have already beer; placed in the bed of the water-course, 

 then very soon a bank of oysters would be formed. And 

 if the operation were repeated for two or three years, this 

 bank would become sufficiently important to be the object 

 of a regular and productive undertaking. 



REARING. 



Our experiences in production were supplemented by 

 the necessary study of the question of rearing. There is 

 now a certainty of never being in want of the spat of Portu- 

 guese oysters. The parqueurs of Verdon who supply it 

 have but one object, the disposal of the mass of spat which 

 they are bound to collect on the return of the spatting 

 season. Arcachon takes a considerable quantity of it, and 

 we shall not omit to show that its employment promotes 

 utilisation of districts supposed to be unproductive, as well 

 as of pares which have been abandoned after being 

 discovered to be unfit for the ordinary oyster. 



Rearing is conducted still on some concessions on the 

 Isle of Ole"ron, and in some claires of the Seudre and La 

 Rochelle. But the spaces devoted to this special industry 

 are necessarily very limited, for no matter how favourable 

 may be the report^upon the rearing of the oyster of the 



OK " 



Tagus, there is no disposition apparently at present to dis- 

 card for it the cultivation of the French oyster. 



