127] OYSTER AND MUSSEL INDUSTRIES. '* Soe 
were separated, only to fall with greater force on the next ones. If the 
wind is northwest (which is usually the case in this locality) the strug- 
gle between the waves and stakes is plainly visible. A depression of 
the mud in the direction of these wings proves that the erosions could 
only be caused by the rushing of the waves against the obstacles in the 
way: therefore there is no doubt that if the stakes be driven 2 or 3 feet 
apart they would not cause any deposit of alluvium. If their presence 
could produce so unfortunate a result, the portion of the Bay of Aiguil- 
lon near Charente, where there have been for centuries more than 
150.000 stakes, should now be much more filled up than that of Vendée. 
where there has never been one driven; the fact, however, is quite the 
contrary. The minister of marine need, therefore, have no scruples in 
permitting this great industry to be developed to its utmost extent. 
The pursuit of this industry is not incompatible with the interests of 
navigation. I therefore join my wishes to those of this industrious 
people, and call the attention and solicitude of the government to their 
work, that the watchful protection heretofore given them may be con- 
tinued. . 
The palisades which the stakes support are not less than 200 to 250 
meters in length each, by 6 feet in height. They are, as I have said, 
grouped in the form of V’s, to constitute weirs or bouchots, and these 
bouchots are so arranged as to always present their vertices toward the 
sea, and prevent the waves from attacking their flanks. These pali- 
sades, to the number of thousands, form 500 weirs, and each weir is at 
least 450 meters long; so that the whole forms a vast wicker-work of 
225,000 meters in length and 6 feet high. This immense apparatus 
extends over a surface of § kilometers in the Bay of Aiguillon, oceupying 
all the space between the points of St. Clement and the mouth of the 
river Marans, in the communes of Esnandes, Charron, and Marsilly. 
The majority of the fishermen own several bouchots, as some farmers 
own several farms. The poorest of them have for their whole pat- 
rimony only the half, third, fourth, or even the fifth part of one of these 
structures, which they work in common with their partners, dividing the 
profits and losses proportionally. 
All these structures are arranged in four series, each of which has its 
different use, according as it is near to or distant from the shore. They 
are called by the names of bouchots du bas ou Maral, bouchots batards, 
bouchots milloin, and bouchots Tamont, names which refer to the zone 
which each series occupies in the topographic plan of the bay. 
The bouchots du bas are the most distant from the shore, and are left 
dry only at the lowest tides. Instead of being built in palisades. as the 
others, they are composed simply of stakes driven about a third of a 
meter apart. These solitary stakes, if I may so express myself, are in 
the zone most favorable to the preservation of the embryo mussels 
which attach themselves to them. In other places this spat. composed 
