FISH AND FISHERIES. 115 



million.* So that, as far as ova are concerned, there is no want of 

 material, and the male sperma are of course still more numerous : all 

 that is wanted is protection. With regard to the methods by which this 

 can be obtained, I condense the following from Bertram's " Harvest of 

 the Sea" (p. 237), who states that the secret of there being only a holding- 

 on place required for the spat of the oyster to insure an immensely 

 increased supply was found by the French. Probably they were 

 indebted in some degree to the methods pursued in England (Colne and 

 Whitstable) for the idea. The plan was simple enough. Strong pillars 

 of wood were driven into the mud and sand, arms were added, the whole 

 was interlaced with branches of trees, and various boughs were hung over 

 beds on ropes and chains, whilst others were sunk by weights in the 

 water. A few boat-loads of oysters being laid down, the spat easily 

 found a home. In 1850 the oyster beds of France were nearly 

 exhausted. St. Brieuc, Rochelle, Marennes, and Eochefort could no 

 longer supply the market. Oyster culture was begun at the Island of 

 Re where there are few trees, but stones and tiles were largely used as 

 collectors for the oyster spat. The work was begun in 1858, and ten 

 years afterwards there were upwards of 4,000 " pares" and "claires" as 

 they are called, constructed on the foreshores of the island. The 

 system was inaugurated by a stonemason, named Boeuf. He enclosed a 

 portion of the foreshore of the island, about 30 yards square, with a 

 wall of rough stones about 18 inches high, and in this enclosure or pare 

 he laid down a few bushels of growing oysters. In the course of a year 

 he was able to dispose of about £6 worth of oysters. Elated with this 

 success he doubled the size of his enclosure, and more than doubled his 

 profits, without in any way encroaching on his breeding stock. The 

 news of this success induced the French Government to cede portions of 

 the shore to be used as oyster pares by labourers, who in return paid a 

 nominal rental of a franc a week. The first duty that had to be 

 performed was to clear off the mud, which is fatal to young oysters, and 

 which abounded in that locality. After this, rocks had to be blasted 

 to obtain stones for the pare walls ; then these had to be built, and 

 the pares stocked with breeding oysters. In a short time an incredible 

 number of oysters was gathered on shores which a few years ago were of 

 no value, t " So that this branch of industry now realizes an extraordi- 

 nary revenue, and spreads comfort amongst families which were 

 formerly in a state of comparative indigence. A series of enormous 

 and unproductive mud banks, occupying a stretch of shore about 4 

 leagues in length, are now so transformed and the whole place so 

 changed as to appear to be the work of a miracle. 



Dr. Kemmerer, of St. Martin's, Island of 'R6, has invented a tile 

 which he covers with some kind of composition that can, when occasion 

 requires, be peeled off, and this plan is useful for the transference of the 

 oyster from the collecting pare to the fattening claire. 



* "Development of the American Oyster," by Dr. W. K. Brooks, p. 15. Printed 

 as an Appendix to the Report of the Commissioners of Fisheries of Maryland, 

 January, 1880, Annapolis, State Printers, 1880. 



t The remainder of this extract is from the Report of the Oyster Culture 

 Commission, Sydney, 1877, p. 10, &c. It is abridged from Bertram's "Harvest of 

 the Sea," to which I have added a few facts here and there of later date, taken 

 principally from Simmond's " Commercial Products of the Sea." 



