THE SHELLFISH INDUSTRY 297 



survived the attacks of their numerous enemies, sink to 

 the bottom. Even there their troubles are not at an end, 

 for they can only attach themselves to clean hard objects 

 such as stones and shells ; if the bottom is of sand or mud 

 or if the stones are slimy with weed the oysters must die. 

 Should the right conditions be found, the oyster fixes itself 

 with a kind of cement, left side undermost, on to the first 

 hard surface with which it comes in contact. It now 

 quickly changes its appearance and both shell and the 

 contained body grow rapidly, so that soon, although less 

 than one-eighth of an inch in diameter, it has all the organs 

 of the adult oyster in miniature. It is now merely a 

 question of time, abundance of food, and immunity from 

 predatory foes such as starfish and crabs, before the oyster 

 becomes fully grown. 



The discovery that oyster spat would settle upon artificial 

 collectors like brushwood immediately fired the imagina- 

 tion of Coste. He foresaw that, not only would it be 

 possible to restock the depleted beds, but, by collecting 

 spat wholesale, to cultivate oysters on an immense scale. 

 The Emperor Napoleon III became interested in the schemes 

 and two Imperial oyster parks were established in the 

 shallow Bay of Arcachon, south of Bordeaux. The 

 experiment was a brilliant success ; 2,000,000 oysters had 

 been imported and from these, immense numbers of spat 

 were obtained on a new type of collector consisting of 

 planks covered with pitch or resin, the latter, with the 

 attached spat, being subsequently broken away from the 

 woodwork. Later years, however, were not so successful 

 and many of the oyster cultivators lost heart and abandoned 

 their attempts. A great step forward was made by an 

 unknown seaman who suggested using half-round roofing 

 tiles as collectors and these proved to be ideal for the purpose 

 but expensive as they had to be broken up in order to 



