[3] OYSTER CULTURE. ioe 
ing oysters, it is now barely possible for ten boats to provide support for 
‘fifteen to twenty families, who have, 
moreover, no other means of support 
than gathering this mollusk. Hence 
we find a very general abandonment 
of maritime careers, the impoverish- 
ment and degradation of our coast 
population, and, finally, the imminent 
weakening of our marine. At this 
time M. Coste discovered a remedy 
for the evil he had announced, and 
through the munificence of the Em- 
peror obtained the means of experi- 
menting, upon a grand scale, with the 
object of restocking the oyster banks 
of the coast, and of applying to this 
great and useful end the principles 
which had been revealed to him in 
his long and arduous scientific labors. 
The harbor of St. Brieux was chosen 
as the site of the first experiment; 
and during the months of March and 
April, 1858, the general planting took 
place with oysters brought from the 
sea at Cancale ‘and Tréguier. Two 
imperial guard-boats, the Ariel and 
the Antilope, were employed to assist 
inthis work. Theoysters were placed 
in six long beds, situated in various 
portions of the bay, and these beds 
were then carefully buoyed out so that 
they could be easily found and exam- 
ined when necessary or desirable. 
Besides the oysters, the bottom was 
paved with oyster shells and the shells 
of Cardium and various other mol- 
lusks, with the object of offering sup- 
port and shelter to the young oysters ; 
then bundles of twigs, from two te 
three meters (6 to 10 feet) in length, 
were anchored with stone and main- 
tained at a short distance from the 
bottom; thus completing a series of 
collecting apparatus sufficient to se- 
cure and hold all the young which 
Fic. J.—A twig bearing young oysters (natu- 
might appear. Six months later, the *! size). 
experiment had already promised complete success; for the shells 
