[57] THE OYSTER AND OYSTER-CULTURE. 739 
be profitably worked. In the rich oyster-regions of Caneale and Saint- 
Vaast-de-la-Hogue, on the coast of Normandy, and in the Bay of Arca- 
chon, there are great banks which, during spring-tide (at the time of 
full and new moon), run dry, or are covered with so little water that 
people can wade over them and pick up the oysters with their hands. 
Near Cancale crowds, resembling caravans, of from 500 to 1,000 per- 
sons, mostly women and children, fish for oysters upon these exposed 
banks. One of the best of these beds in the Bay of Arcachon, called 
Le Cés, has an extent of 11 hectares (about 26.73 acres). When oys- 
ter-fishing is permitted on this bank, it is generally performed by 
women, who are placed in rows of about ten each, and, headed by two 
men, proceed over the bed. ‘The oysters are gathered into sacks which 
are carried by women following behind the others, and who empty the 
sacks, as they become filled, into larger baskets. The gathering can- 
not continue longer than from two to two and one-half hours in any 
one spring-tide, because the bank is not exposed for a longer time. 
Yet, in this time, 40 to 50 persons can gather about 60,000 oysters. Thn- 
mediately after any place is fished in this manner it is marked by four 
cask-buoys, so that it may not be fished again the same year, and in order 
that it may be readily found later, when they scatter oyster and mussel 
shells over the ground for the attachment of the young oysters. About 
the year 1870, the beds in the Bay of Arcachon had become almost en- 
tirely exhausted, but by this strict method of protection, the fecundity 
of the 19 beds which are located there has once more become so great 
that the water of the bay, from June till into August, is filled with 
swarms of young oysters. Hence it is no wonder that at times, and in 
favorable places, single tiles can be found to which from 1,000 to 1,200 
young oysters have become attached. According to an official report* 
upon French oyster-culture which appeared in January, 1877, there 
were, in 1876, in the fattening-ponds upon both sides of the mouth of 
the Seudre, 80,000,000 oysters; near Oléron, 7,000,000; near Sables- 
VOlonne, 10,000,000; near Lorient the same number; and near Cour- 
seulles-sur-Mer, 20,000,000 to 30,000,000. This extraordinary fruitfulness 
of the oyster-beds along the west coast of France is the result of the care- 
ful preservation of a rich stock of mature breeding oysters upon the nat- 
ural banks, especially in the Bay of Arcachon, on the coast of Brittany 
near Auray, and on the coast of Normandy near Saint-Vaast-de-la-Hogue, 
Cancale, and Granville. Thousands of persons are industriously em- 
ployed, during the season, in taking, upon shells, tiles, &¢., the im- 
*Rapport adressé au ministre de la marine et des colonies sur lV’ostréicultur, par M. 
G. Bouchon-Brandely, Published in the official journal of the French Republic, Jan- 
uary 22, 1877. Under an act of Parliament of May 17, 1877, an English translation 
of this appeared, with the title: Copy of translation of a report made to the minis- 
ter of marine in France, by M. G. Bouchon-Brandely, relative to oyster-culture on 
the shores of the channel and of the ocean. 
From this report I have taken all the remarks which I have made in chapter 13, in 
regard to the latest condition of the French system of oyster-breeding. 
