THE MUSSEL. 213 
favourite places of attachment, and that those which were so 
elevated above the mud soon became large and fat. Thereupon 
he determined to commence mussel culture, which has ever since 
been carried on in the very same manner and in the same locality. 
Piles are driven into the mud, some five or six feet of their length 
remaining out of it. Long rows of these are placed, as our illus- 
tration shows, running out to the sea, sometimes even for two 
or three miles. Between the piles wicker-work is interlaced, upon 
which the bivalves fasten themselves. 
Numbers of these lines of posts are so placed that their seaward 
extremities are close together, and they diverge as they spread to 
the shore. Locally they are termed douchots, or parks, while the 
fishermen who attend to them are doucholeurs. These parks belong 
PILES WITH WICKER-WORK, COVERED WITH FULL-GROWN MUSSELS. 
sometimes to one man, but usually they are the property of a 
co-operative society, every boucholeur having a share in the con- 
cern. The shell-fish are gathered in at all times, except during 
the period of their spawning ; and also if the weather be very hot 
the fishing is suspended. When the tide has gone out, the mud 
flats are much too soft to bear the weight of the boucholeur. 
Walton’s genius, however, soon found a means of overcoming this 
difficulty, and he built what is now called an acon, which in fact is 
a light punt, some six feet long, made of four thin planks, two 
forming the bottom, and two the sides, while the front or prow is 
finished with a slope. The fisher, as our cut will at once explain, 
rests upon one knee in his acon, holding the sides with his hands, 
then with the other leg he pushes himself forward. 
Many of the acons are so constructed as to carry two persons ; 
and it is astonishing with what rapidity they can glide over the 
