OYSTER AND MUSSEL REPORT. 47 
oyster-spat can be obtained in abundance, and it is not 
only able to supply young oysters to the various regions 
in France, such as Marennes, where the oysters are 
reared, fattened, flavoured, and coloured for the market, 
but it also exports them in large quantities to England. 
This artificial oyster culture at Arcachon was established 
in 1859 by M. Coste, a biological professor in the Collége 
de France. 
The population of Arcachon and the neighbourhood is 
about 30,000, and of these 12,000 are employed constantly 
in the oyster parcs. About 300,000,000 oysters are pro- 
duced annually, their value being upwards of 1,000,000 
francs. The most notable physical feature of the neigh- 
bourhood is the vast inland sea, the ‘‘ Bassin d’ Arcachon” 
which is about 80 kilom. in circumference, contains at 
high tide about 15,000 hectares of area, say 30,000 acres, 
and is over the greater number of the channels about 5 to 
10 fathoms in depth, while two thirds of the whole area 
dries at low tide. This “‘ bassin” is connected with the 
Atlantic by a narrow entrance (‘‘passe’’) at Cap Ferret 
through which the tide runs in and out. 
In the middle of the ‘‘ bassin”’ and due north of the town 
of Arcachon is a small island, Ile des Oiseaux, and on the 
shores of this and on various other flat shallow parts which 
are exposed at low tide (and which are called “‘ crassats’’) 
are situated the oyster farms or “‘ parcs.’” Some of these 
(‘‘banes reserves’) belong to the state and are reserved 
for the purpose of producing spat—no doubt in the past a 
most useful provision and wise precaution against any 
general depletion of the private beds, but I was assured 
by several people at Arcachon that the state reservations 
were now really unnecessary. They say that there are 
now so many adult oysters all over the ground that abun- 
dance of spat for all is produced, Certainly during the 
