88 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



experiment was 80 marked, that after an official visit paid by the min- 

 ister of marine, Admiral Fonrichon, and a number of savants, including 

 M. Coste, who had predicted a failure, that the original concession was 

 extended to 620 acres. 



There are numerous other places on the continent of Europe where 

 oyster and mussel culture is successfully carried on. 



The secret of the whole matter is, that where mussel and oyster cul- 

 ture has proved successful, the person undertaking the same has ob- 

 tained a concession from the government to work the beds exclusively 

 himself, and has not been hampered by other persons claiming a right 

 to fish on his grounds ; in other words, fishings are worked in precisely 

 the same way as farms on the land, where the farmer sows his seed and 

 at the proper season reaps his corn. 



In England the laws allow the seed to be sown and protected to a 

 certain extent, and when the mollusks are a certain size, i. <?., 2} inches 

 for oysters and 2 inches for mussels, the whole world is free to come and 

 fish on the beds by taking out a nominal license, which is at the rate of 

 lis. Gd. per ton on the burden of the smack for one year, or dd. per ton 

 per month. This applies only to fisheries worked under the " Sea fish- 

 eries act, 1868." 



To make the oysters and mussels the actual property of some private 

 individual or body corporate, appears at first sight to be rather hard on 

 the so-called fishermen, but it must be borne in mind that any person 

 who undertakes to properly cultivate a portion of the foreshore for the 

 increase of oysters and mussels must be in a position to extend a cer- 

 tain amount of capital, and therefore he would not, very probably, do 

 much manual labor, but confine his energies to the employment of 

 watchers or water bailiffs, to the making of "lays" or "pares," by dig- 

 ging large reservoirs between tide marks, and the various other ex- 

 penses contingent upon the enterprise; so that the supply of mollusks 

 would be greatly increased, and the fisherman or laborer employed 

 would have more work than he has under the present exhausted state of 

 things. 



I wish this essay to be read in conjunction with my " Essay on the 

 artificial propagation of anadromous fish, other than the salmon, and 

 the restocking the tidal waters of our large rivers artificially with 

 smelts, &c." 



Under the "orders" granted to the corporations of Lynn and Boston 

 for the cultivation of oysters and mussels, they have collectively juris- 

 diction over 229 square miles in the Wash, and I have no hesitation in 

 saying that, if the mussel beds within this area were properly Avorked, 

 rhey are capable of supplying the whole of the long-line fisheries of the 

 country with bait. 



March, 1881. 



