272 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



tunate with the Venus mercenaria, and the oysters of Virginia, and suc- 

 ceeded in landing two thousand living representatives at Havre, from 

 which place they were sent immediately to the Hougue of Saint-Waast. 



Your excellency will permit me, before entering into details concern- 

 ing my commission, to mention the circumstances which preceded it, as 

 the experience resulting from them is worthy of record. 



About the end of the year 18G0 one of my cousins, M. de Ferussac, 

 spoke to me of the alimentary supplies afforded the people of the United 

 States from two species of marine mollusks, known in the country under 

 the names of the soft clam and the round clam. The information thus 

 given me having been confirmed by several American captains fre- 

 quenting the port of Havre, I hastened to communicate with M. Coste, 

 proposing, if he considered it advisable, to import some specimens of 

 the mollusks in question, by means of the transatlantic steamers, from 

 New York. This proposition was immediately accepted ; funds were 

 placed at my disposal by the College of France ; and in the month of 

 May, 1861, the reliable officer in charge of the Arago, who cheerfully 

 took the matter in charge, brought to Havre a number of round clams 

 ( Venus mercenaria^ as well as oysters from Virginia, of a species entirely 

 different from those found on our shores. 



Some time after this, the Emperor, whose attention is constantly 

 directed to everything that tends to increase our alimentary resources, 

 took himself the initiative in the general acclimation of American edible 

 mollusks. To facilitate this design of the Emperor, M. de Moutholon, 

 consul-general of France at New York, was invited to confer with the 

 celebrated Professor Agassiz, of the University of Cambridge, near Bos- 

 ton, in the United States. 



M. Coste, Member of the Institute, was instructed by His Majesty to 

 take all necessary measures for the success of the enterprise in France 



Mr. Burkardt, draughtsman of the Museum of Natural History at. 

 Cambridge, left Boston in the month of September, of the same year, 

 with some of each of the following species, collected through the kind- 

 ness of Professor Agassiz: (1.) Mya arenaria ; (2.) Venus mercenaria; 

 (3.) Pecten concentricus ; (4.) Momarus americanus ; (5.) Mactra solid issima ; 

 (6.) Mytilus edulis.* The voyage to Europe was accomplished under 

 such unfavorable circumstances that a large portion of these perished 

 during the passage ; and as the vessel did not arrive at Liverpool until 

 after the departure of the steamer for Havre, Mr. Burkardt was obliged 

 to convey the shell-fish, which were still alive, entirely across England, 

 in order to embark at Southampton. Of all the mollusks brought from 

 Boston only two hundred of the Venus survived to reach France j and 

 these were immediately placed in the parks of Saint- Waast, in accord- 

 ance with the instructions of M. Coste. 



Such, your excellency, were the first attempts at acclimation; and if 



*(1.) Soft clam ; (2.) Round or quahaug clam ; (3.) Scallop; (4.) Lobster; (5.) Hen 

 clam ; (G.) Mussel. 



