[17] OYSTER-CULTURE UPON SHORES OF BRITISH CHANNEL. 689 



course of my iuvestigation I have seen only one station, Les Sales 

 d'Olonne, which can be compared with it in this respect. 



I have myself detached from a fascine an oyster fifteen or sixteen 

 months old which did not measure less than 7.08 centimeters. 



It remains to describe briefly the happy transformation effected by M. 

 de le Gervinais. He made use of a mill-pond, fed at each tide by sea 

 water. Into this he introduced oysters to attain their growth. The 

 pond also received the waters from a small brook of fresh water. The 

 development of the shell and the corresponding growth of the animal 

 were without precedent, and they were attributed not only to the intro- 

 duction of the fresh waters, the influence of which was of course favor- 

 able, but also to the abundant nutritive elements brought down by the 

 brook. 



FossE-MoRT, NEAR Saint-Malo. — In 1878, M. Camac obtained from 

 the Minister of the Marine a grant of three hectares, situated upon 

 the river Ranee, near Men6hic. 



The Ranee formerly contained several oyster-beds, and recently, as I 

 have stated already, M. de Bon has succeeded in re-establishing them. 



In the beginning M. Camac succeeded badly, but the more difficulties 

 multiplied, the more resolutely M. Camac, who is an American, exerted 

 himself to overcome them. 



The upper part of the concession rises like an amphitheatre, and is 

 150 or 200 meters from the bed of the river. The sea covers it at every 

 tide, except during the neap tides. Here were excavated claires, 40 

 meters long, 10 meters wide, and 60 centimeters in depth, which served 

 for the first exi^eriments. The oysters and the spawm employed were 

 brought from Auray. Upon arriving, the young oysters still attached to 

 the collectors were detached and placed in frames made of galvauized- 

 iron wire, which were placed in the claires. They made no progress 

 during the whole summer, and the cold of winter destroyed the most of 

 them, while oysters eighteen months old, inclosed in similar frames and 

 lowered into the sea, developed to very good proportions. In October 

 the frames containing these oysters were transferred to the upper ponds, 

 which are, as I have already stated, covered and laid bare by almost 

 every tide. There they quickly fattened and became green, but when 

 winter set in disease invaded them. It was no better in the succeeding 

 summer, and of the 15,000 started with, hardly 3,000 survived. This 

 succession of reverses was fruitful of suggestions, which did not escape 

 the attention of M. Camac. He at once concluded that the more ele- 

 vated part of the concession did not afford the conditions necessary for 

 the growth of the moUusk. 



After attempting, without any better results, to change the form of 

 his boxes, he decided, the following year, to transfer all of his oysters to 

 the borders of the river, at a point which is uncovered only during the 

 spring tides, and where the water is 30 meters deep {cl 30 metres de pro- 

 fondeur) during high water. At the succeeding spring tides he found 

 S. Mis. 46 44 



