864 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [40] 
cient to depopulate the whole coast of France. Besides, the question 
has already been settled by experience: At Cancale, one of the most fer- 
tile districts, the season extends only from March to May. The fisher- 
men of Marennes, from what I learned during my exploration of the bay 
of Seudre, will hail with gratitude such a measure. It will cause their 
exhausted beds to be once more restocked, will prevent the complete 
ruin of those which are still dredged, and, as a consequence, will relieve 
them from the heavy taxes which they pay to other countries from which 
they are obliged to obtain their supplies. | 
It will probably be also said that the interval of three months De 
tween the opening and closing of the fishing season will not suffice for 
the consumption of the crop. But the oysters which are eaten at this 
season are not then taken from the sea. On the contrary, to be admitted 
to our markets, it is first necessary that they be kept several months in 
the parcs, claires, and viviers, where they are prepared for their destina- 
tion. Now, the owners of: these pares, claires, and viviers, in which the 
oysters are brought to perfection, being always able to accommodate 
more than éan be supplied, it follows that the fishermen will always find 
a ready market for the stock on hand. 
While, by the generous intervention of the government, this industry 
may be extended to all suitable points along the whole coast, the navy 
department will be enabled easily to follow its progress, if the agents 
charged with this work be compelled to keep a register not only of the seed 
beds, but also of the establishments where the oysters are perfected, 
such as pares, claires, viviers, étalages, and bouchots ; if it instructs them 
each year to give, in this register, a complete description of the beds 
and to state which are affected and which are thriving; if, finally, it 
compels them to keep as exact an account as possible of the yield, not 
only of each bed in particular, but of all the beds contained in their 
jurisdiction, whether the yield be obtained by dredging or by hand. 
This statistical work, which I propose to extend to all the marine 
products, will form, in the archives of the central administration, a col- 
lection of documents from which to ascertain in what proportion these 
products enter each year into the public food supply, and to determine 
whether they are increasing or declining: important questions upon 
which up to this time our knowledge is very incomplete, as I have rea- 
son to know from my experience in exploring the sea-coasts. 
The methods which I recommend for the creation of artificial oyster 
beds along the ocean shores are equally applicable to the Mediter- 
ranean. While waiting for the special plans which I shall propose for 
the latter scheme, I think it would be well, sire, to authorize, as a pre- 
liminary experiment, the commissaries of the districts in which the ponds 
of Berre and of Thau lie, to begin at once gathering, from the natural 
beds of the Gulf of Lyons, in the neighborhood of Cette, a suflicient 
quantity of seed oysters, to be transported to these ponds, and deposited 
alongside of each other, on sandy and rocky bottoms, rather than muddy, 
