62 
one claire may have been stagnating and evaporating for 
a week or more while the neighbouring pond may have 
been freshened by a canal from the estuary of the Seudre 
an hour or two before. In most cases the water is ad- 
mitted at spring tides only. 
The large canal leading towards Marennes had sp. gr. 
1016 and temperature 70°F., while several neighbouring 
claires had their sp. gr. about 1:027 and temperatures of 
78° F., 82° F., and 85° F. respectively. 
The oysters laid down in claires of the Marennes and 
La Tremblade neighbourhoods are obtained from Arca- 
chon. They may be bought by the éleveurs when they 
are from 18 months to 2 years old, and may be fattened, 
greened and ready for the market by the end of the 
following autumn. 
POINTE LE CHAPUS. 
I was disappointed in not seeing Mons. Grenier at 
Bourcefranc, but went on to Pt. le Chapus to see the 
claires, the oyster parcs on the beach and the basin of 
dégorgement (see Pl. II, figs. 2, 3, and 6). 
The oyster enclosures on the beach, which is just at 
the mouth of the estuary of the Seudre on the Straits of 
Maumusson, are very primitive. They extend over the 
sreater part of the muddy gravel shore as exposed at low 
tide, and are merely rude enclosures surrounded by low 
banks of stones heaped together to about one foot in 
height. The oysters are laid out in these parcs and are 
attended to at low tide by men and women. There are 
also at Pointe le Chapus certain enclosures of smaller 
size on the shore in which mussels are placed to fatten 
and to be protected till they are wanted. ‘These mussel 
preserves are areas of about 10 yards square and one foot 
in depth, and the floor is of firm mud. Probably these 
enclosures are of considerable use in protecting the large 
