Ingenious as this was and successful when great care 

 was exercised in its operation, it failed as a business 

 proposition on account of the great amount of labour and 

 time necessitated to render it successful. It remained 

 for an ingenious Arcachon mason to interest himself 

 in the subject and think out a simpler and more econo- 

 mical method. Michelet was this inventor's name and 

 it is worthy of remembrance as by this and other ol 

 his practical devices oyster culture passed from the 

 experimental stage into a settled and stable industry 

 with a regular routine of work theoretically and econo- 

 mically sound. But simple though we know his final 

 device to be it was only after severe disappointments 

 suffered during the first two seasons (1863 and 1864) 

 he engaged in these experiments that unqualified success 

 crowned his efforts in 1865. Ignoring the details of his 

 earlier attempts, we need note only that the final 

 process which he invented was the covering of the tile 

 with a friable coating of lime and sand in definite 

 proportions mixed to a creamy consistence. Originally 

 Michelet applied this to the surfaces of the tiles with 

 a trowel ; later, the simplification of merely dipping the 

 tiles into the composition made rather thinner was 

 introduced. 



The liming of tiles is to-day carried on exactly as 

 Michelet perfected the process in 1865 and 1866, and 

 tiles thus coated are to-day recognized as the only 

 satisfactory form of spat collector suitable for the condi- 

 tions prevailing in Arcachon basin. 



Coste, whose genius does not seem to have been 

 that of the inventor, was quick to see that the problem 

 which, simple though it appeared, had baffled many 

 intellects for several years, was at last solved satisfac- 

 torily ; he hurried off to Arcachon and in his usual 

 effusive manner wrung Michelet's hands the while he 

 praised him, saying " I congratulate you most truly, for 

 you have understood my ideas better than any one else." 

 From this time we hear little of Coste and though it is 

 to him in the first instance that the enormous oyster 



