[23] OYSTER-CULTURE UPON SHORES OF BRITISH CHANNEL. 695 



The pares of the inaritime domain are not the only ones included iu 

 the establishment directed by M. Turlure. In rear of the workrooms 

 and store-honses are two large basins lined with asphalt. These are 80 

 meters long and 21 wide, and are used for the reception of oysters and 

 to prepare them for shipment. They are subdivided into seven com- 

 partments, in which the oysters are placed according to their size and 

 their origin. These basins are connected with the river by a canal, and 

 the water in them can be renewed at pleasure. 



For some years this establishment has been of real importance. Ac- 

 cording to the statement of M. Turlure, there are iu the pares and in 

 the river 10,000,000 of oysters. 



The establishment of the MM. Charles, which I have previously de- 

 scribed, is completed by other ponds excavated in the dune which sep- 

 arates the private properties from the public maritime domain. A 

 supply canal leads from the sea to the ponds and carries the water 

 necessary for the establishment, the distribution of which is regulated 

 by a sluice-gate at the extremity of tlie canal. The water may be 

 renewed nine or ten days out of every fifteen. 



The basins are not all devoted to the same purpose. One is appro- 

 priated to oysters, which are being subjected to the disgorgement which, 

 is usual i^revious to shipment. The others contain the frames and trays 

 with open wire bottoms in which are placed the fry, or more frequently 

 the oysters which are nearly ready for the table. These same areas of 

 water serve during the winter to shelter the spawn bred in the river, 

 and which it is necessary to protect from the cold. 



The reservoirs communicate with eacli other, but, although supplied 

 with the same water, they give verj' different results. 



In one of them, that most remote from the mouth of the canal, the 

 bottom of which is composed of mud and clay, the oysters readilj^ in- 

 crease in dimensions from 4^ to 5 centimeters in a season. 



The neighboring pare, which is separated from the first only by a 

 narrow tongue of land, can scarcely nourish the individuals confided to 

 it. These anomalies are to be explained by the greater or less amount 

 of food afforded directly by the soil, and by the percolations of fresh 

 water, which are quite abundant in the pare in which the development 

 of the moUusk is so pronounced. 



During 1875 the MM. Charles sold 5,500,000 oysters, of which 2,500,000 

 were ready for the table. 



The spawn raised here is brought from Auray, and I will add that it 

 produces, in the plantations of Lorient, individuals distinguished alike 

 for the delicacy of their flavor and the fineness and lightness of their 

 shells. I have seen many of them that were in no respect inferior to 

 oysters of Ostende. 



AuBAY AND La Trinitii;.— Auray and La Trinite are, with Archacon, 

 the most important oyster centers of our coast. They are more partic- 

 ularly engaged in i^ropagatiou. 



