BOUCHOT SYSTEM OF CULTURE 69 



each has several hundred posts.' They are 

 arranged at right angles to the shore. The tide 

 ebbs for a great distance on the mud-flats of this 

 coast, and the bouchots are placed in series 

 farther and farther from shore. It has for very 

 many years been found convenient to transplant 

 the mussels from one series to another, at suc- 

 cessive stages of growth, beginning at the section 

 farthest from land, since it is arranged for the 

 purpose of spat-collecting alone. By the time a 

 brood has reached its final resting-place, and is 

 ready for market, four or five changes at least 

 have usually been effected. 



The development of the system appears to 

 have proceeded to a considerable extent towards 

 the multiplication of these sections. In process of 

 time, considerable confusion has arisen in the use 

 of local names for the various sections. Twenty 

 or thirty years ago the outermost section was 

 called borichot dii bas, or bouchot d'aval. The 

 latter name is still retained, but the former one, 

 according to Herdman,^ is now applied to the 

 third section, the order being bouchot du d'aval, 

 bouchot batisse, boucJiot du bas, bouchot batards, and 

 finally bouchot d^ainont. So far as we in this 



^ Loc. cit, p. 122. 



