4 
OYSTER AND MUSSEL REPORT. ae 
use of the traps saved time and labour as it allowed them 
to use the fish trawl at the same time. Another fisher- 
man, however, assured me that he preferred the traps to 
a shrimp trawl, that they gave much better results. They 
say that it is not very much use setting the traps in 
summer as they only catch very small shrimps then. The 
best time of the year they say is in January and February, 
None of the boats were using the traps at the time I was 
there (middle of July). The value of the shrimps caught 
varies from 30,000 to 60,000 francs annually. 
Another object of fishery interest I saw at Croisic was 
the ‘‘ vivier’’ which they are in the habit of making out 
of their old fishing boats. They make certain slits in the 
sides between the planks, put on a deck of sparwork, and 
several partitions in the interior so as to divide it up into 
about four compartments through which the water flows 
readily, and in these aquaria they keep their stock of 
lobsters and ‘‘langousts.” The “‘viviers”’ float deep in 
the water, and are to be seen moored in various parts of 
the entrance to the harbour and inland sea. 
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 
There is no doubt that there are great and flourishing 
shellfish industries along the west coast of France; and 
one thing that struck me very forcibly was the admirable 
manner in which the people seem to make the best of 
unfavourable conditions and to take advantage of every 
opportunity given to them by nature. Few places on 
any coast, I fancy, could look more desolate, hopeless and 
forbidding than the vast mud swamps of the Bay of 
Aiguillon, and yet by means of the bouchot system many 
square miles of this useless ground have been brought 
