836 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [12] 
see from what source they now procure the shell-fish which are imbedded 
in these fields of cultivation; we shall afterwards tell how they proceed 
in the arrangement. 
About the month of September.in each year, when the spawning 
season is passed, and the opening of the fishery gives to each one the 
right to obtain his supply of oysters from the public beds, all the popu- 
lation of Marennes meet there; men, women, and children rival each 
other in activity to take part in the harvesting. At low tide they are 
seen running towards the beds which they discover, detaching from 
them the oysters which the laws permit them to extract, placing them 
afterwards in store in the spacious live ponds, where they are preserved 
until the time of sale, or until that of their distribution in the claires. 
At high tide, the deep beds are incessantly raked by the sailing- 
vessels, which detach from them the oysters by means of a dredge, 
a kind of iron rake, furnished with a net which collects all that the 
instrument loosens. But as this mode of operation involves consider- 
able expense, only a few persons are able to practice it. 
As they withdraw the oysters from the sea, they place them provi- 
sionally, as I have said, in these live-ponds, situated immediately upon 
the border of the sea-shore, and which differ from the claires in being 
recovered at each tide, which is twice a day. There these oysters live 
as they do on natural beds; they are kept white, and continue to in- 
crease in size. The largest, those which have attained adult age when 
they are deposited, are ordinarily destined for the use of the surround- 
ing country, where the wives of the fishermen go to sell them. The 
young ones are preserved for nourishing in the claires. But, at present, 
the natural beds of the neighborhood do not meet the requirements of 
this trade; about a third of the young which they introduce into these - 
reservoirs come from the coasts of Britanny, Normandy, and Vendée. 
They are brought by vessels, on which they are loaded in sea-weed, and 
where they can remain eight or ten days without alteration. But when 
the voyage is prolonged beyond that time, they are obliged to put them 
into the water to moisten them (faire boire); then they gather them up 
again, and thus gradually conduct them to their destination. 
These foreign oysters never acquire the excellent flavor of those which 
are taken in this locality. They allow them in vain to stay a long time 
‘inithe claires. The improvement which they undergo in becoming green 
(verdissant) never effaces completely the traces of their primitive nature. 
They remain tough notwithstanding the new qualities which cultiva- 
tion gives them, and preserve a certain sharpness which connoisseurs | 
know how to distinguish. It is the same with them as with the adult 
native oysters. When they attain this period of their existence, their 
coloration is nothing more, if I may be allowed the expression, than a 
false stamp, by the aid of which speculation gives to them a higher 
mercantile value, thus compromising by this fraud, unfortunately too 
