858 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [34] 
furnishing a.small supply, are seriously injured by the growing invasion 
of mussels. The cultivators also in these regions, not being able to find 
sufficient oysters to stock their ponds and elaires for greening or perfect- 
ing, are obliged to seek them at great expense as far off as the shores of 
Brittany without being able to supply the demand. 
The bay of Saint-Brieuc, so admirably and so naturally adapted to 
the reproduction of the oyster, and which on its clean, hard bottom for- 
merly contained no less than 15 beds which were continuously dredged, 
has to day but 3, from which 20 boats could in a few days carry off the 
last shell, while in the period of its prosperity more than 200 barks, 
manned by 1,400 men, were annually employed in the business from the 
~ 1st of October to the Ist of April, and realized from it between 300,000 
and 400,000 franes. 
In the harbor of Brest and at the mouths of the rivers of Brittany 
the decadence has not been so great, because these fertile spots have 
not been subjected to such constant dredging. But inasmuch as our 
own fishermen are now compelled to resort to these beds, they, like our 
own, will soon become exhausted. 
At Cancale and at Granville, which are historic grounds for the muiti- 
plication of oysters, it is only by good management that they succeed, 
not in inereasing the supply, but in preventing its decline. While this 
important trade is steadily declining, or remaining stationary, the in- 
creased facilities of communication between the sea-board and the inte- 
rior as steadily augment the demand for these marine articles of food. 
These products, made costly by scarcity, now bring in our markets fabu- 
lous prices, and the inhabitants of the coast, consulting only their 
immediate wants, and looking only to the present hour, commit depre- 
dations which, in the near future, will aggravate their distress. 
Now, Your Majesty, there is for this deplorable state of things arem- 
edy, easy of application, certain to succeed, and which will furnish an 
incalculable wealth of food for the public. This remedy consists in 
undertaking at the expense of the government, under the direction of 
the administration of the marine and by means of its vessels, the stock- 
ing of the shores of France so as to restore the ruined beds, to revive - 
those which are declining, to protect those which are prosperous, and 
to create new ones wherever the nature of the bottom is suitable. And 
when by this generous policy these marine fields shall once more be- 
come productive, the dredging may be placed under such restrictions 
that while certain fields are being operated others may lie in repose; a 
plan which, for a century, has kept the bays of Cancale and Granville 
from the destruction which injurious dredging has caused everywhere 
else. 
To give a striking example of the method in which these operations 
of restocking and of creating new beds ought to be conducted, and of 
the immense results which may be obtained, I have the honor to recom- 
mend to Your Majesty’s government that the bay of Saint-Brieuc be set 
