206 THE WORLD OF THE SEA. 
farming thus begun has since increased into a regular business, 
Upon the coasts of Sussex and Kent it is carried on upon a large 
scale. The process is exactly that which we have described as in 
use in Lake Fusaro. 
Some twenty years ago the oyster beds of France were well- 
nigh exhausted by the system of unrestricted and indiscriminate 
dredging; and had it not been for M. Coste, the French coast 
would to-day have been utterly destitute of this favourite mollusk. 
This celebrated academician urged the government to establish 
oyster farms all round the coast, and to set apart a certain number 
of vessels for the sole purpose of attending to these artificial 
banks. In 1858, the same year in which M. Coste presented his 
report to the Emperor, operations were commenced. The Bay of 
St. Brieuc was selected for the first experiment, and in the months 
of March and April about three million oysters, full of spawn, 
which had been dredged up from “common” grounds, were 
deposited on shells, fragments of tiles, broken pottery, &c. At 
the end of eight months the progress of the beds was tested; a 
dredge which was let down for a few minutes brought up 2,000 
oysters fit for use, and three bundles of faggots taken up at 
random were found to contain 20,000 young bivalves, varying in 
size from one to three inches in diameter. Two of these fascines, 
exposed to public view at Binic and Portrieux, greatly excited the 
astonishment of the villagers; they looked like bundles of leafy 
branches, each leaf being a living oyster. 
Wishful to follow the example of M. Coste, the distinguished 
naturalists of other countries—amongst whom we ought to mention 
M. Van Beneden, of Louvain, and M. Eschricht, of Copenhagen— 
visited the French oyster parks, and urged their respective govern- 
ments to adopt so admirable a plan. This has accordingly been 
done on the coasts of Belgium and Denmark. 
M. Coste showed that every place reached by the low tide 
could be utilised for the culture of the oyster; and under his 
advice the Bay of Arcachon was inaugurated as a vast oyster farm; 
it increases every day, and gives fair promise of affording an 
abundant supply. Already 1,200 capitalists employ 1,200 fisher- 
men to look after nearly 1,000 acres planted with oysters. The 
government formed in the bay two model farms, at which they 
