OYSTER CULTURE IN FRANCE. 635 



mens which in the space of less than three months have 

 passed from the size of three centimetres to that of eight 

 or nine centimetres. 



This is the explanation of the phenomenon. The claire 

 belonging to the municipality in which the oysters have 

 always been free from epidemic, is situated on a level with 

 the bed of the channel, and receives water twice every 24 

 hours, except for two or three days, when the water is dead. 



We shall now recommend to the enlightened solicitude 

 of the Minister of Marine that works of deepening and 

 cleansing should be executed bv the local Commissioners 



<j * 



in the channel at Rambaud, and that at Conseiller. The 

 realisation of this wish, in giving to the sturdy and inter- 

 esting populations of the borders of the Gironde a satis- 

 faction which they have long looked for, would render it 

 possible to attempt at Verdon the rearing of oysters on the 

 spot, and would have the effect of handing over to industry 

 some hundreds of hectares. 



Let us pass from the coasts of the ocean to the 

 borders of the Mediterranean. We are here in presence 

 of flats, and immense lagunes which no one has attempted 

 to fertilise. Can it be that the ponds of Berre, Caronte, 

 Gloria, Maugiuo, Palavas, Frontignan, Thau, Sigeau, and 

 Leucate, are not suitable for any kind of enterprise ? Is 

 human activity unable to put a stop to their sterility ? 

 Cannot the industry which is concerned with water, and 

 for w r hich they were apparently created, settle in them and 

 become developed ? We have studied in detail the south 

 coast, the dryness of which offers a distressing spectacle, 

 and have visited one by one the stations on its borders, 

 and we have been convinced that it might become the seat 

 of activity and a source of national prosperity. 



