ot] OYSTER AND MUSSEL INDUSTRIES. 875 
flow of water; and in these pens, filled with branches, a few oysters about 
to spawn should be placed, in order to ascertain whether these collec- 
tors will retain more or less seed than the first. 
In other places, the work will consist simply in placing wicker-work 
beneath planks, fastened by cross-pieces to stakes. The ceiling of this 
plank structure, being roughened by adhering chips, will furnish to the 
spat points of support which will replace the artificial stalactites. 
I have had constructed by the crew of the Chamois models of these 
different instruments of cultivation, and will place them at the disposal 
of the government when it is desired to introduce them. 
In the center of each of these school-farms a pontoon surmounted by 
two rooms will serve as a lodging place for the persons in charge of the 
apparatus, who will act in concert with the maritime guards of Dauris, 
Séveillard, and Daillon. These guards are all devoted to the work, and 
the first named have excited special remark by their ardent zeal. In 
order, however, that these agents may derive from their employment a 
livelihood, I hope that their salary may be raised to at least 800 francs, 
whether in the form of a temporary grant, or as a permanent salary. 
The watchmen of the two pontoons, two men to a pontoon, will be taken 
in turn from the crew of the police-boat; for the personnel of the fleet, 
being under a rigid discipline, offers a guarantee of faithfulness. 
In the present condition of things the general surveillance of the bay 
is insufficient. There are in a circumference of 18 leagues containing 
10,000 hectares of surface, three maritime guards, the inspector of fish- 
eries, and a small cutter commanded by a skipper. So limited a force 
is evidently insufficient to meet the exigencies of the service. I there- 
fore recommend that the maritime guard be increased to six, their pay 
doubled, and that the inspector of fisheries be promoted to the first class, 
so that increased responsibility may be rewarded by increased pay. I 
also recommend that the actual guard be stationed at the far end of the 
bay towards Gujan, and the employment in addition, of a serew-launch 
of 25 or 30 tons burden, of light draught, constructed upon the model 
of those used in the light-house service, and commanded by an ensign 
or lieutenant. 
With these means of action, and the aid of private enterprise, an 
appropriation of 20,000 franes would be sufficient to transform, in two 
years, with profit to all and honor to the government which extended its 
help to the enterprise, the bay of Arcachon into a veritable field of abun- 
dance. This bay then would produce upon its stocked depths, by 
means of appliances prepared beforehand, immense harvests, the extent 
of which may be calculated in advance by the result which the perma- 
nent depots have already begun to accumulate. 
But shell-fish will not constitute the only harvest taken from this 
fertile tract. The government can easily create along the coast a no 
less precious source of production, by building reservoirs connected by 
trenches with the sea, through which the excess of fish spawn can be 
