926 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERES. [20] 
watched, an experienced man to follow up with attention and persever- 
ance the various phases of this experiment, would show definitely, I 
think, what might be obtained by oyster culture on our southern coasts. 
If the experiment was successful, as there is every reason to suppose 
it would be, it would form a starting point of information, calculated to 
establish oyster-cultural industry in the Mediterranean. 
CONCLUSIONS. 
Last year I stated with legitimate satisfaction that the industry of 
oyster culture in the ocean, although in its infancy, was in a flourishing 
condition and secured the existence on our shores of a maritime popula- 
tion of 200,000 souls. What a different spectacle is presented between 
Port Vendres and Marseilles. At the former place it is the picture of a 
commercial life asserting itself—the dawn of prosperity. I have seen an 
entire fishing population engaged with indefatigable activity in all the 
labors demanded by the culture of the mollusks, certain of finding there 
the reward of their efforts. At the latter one sees barren lakes, a de- 
serted beach, and an impoverished sea. 
The causes of the decadence of our southern shores are extremely nu- 
merous and varied, and it is not for me to examine them all. The principal 
causes are doubtless geological ones. The alluvium transported by the 
rivers flowing into the gulf of Lyons, the total volume of which exceeds 
20,000,000 cubic meters (705,600,000 cubic feet) per annum, has caused 
a displacement of the shore line, the formation of lagoons, their pro- 
gressive filling up, and their transformation into marshes which have 
become hotbeds of dangerous fevers. The fish, whose spawning grounds 
were constantly buried beneath the mud, sought a more stable shore, 
and man finally was obliged to flee from its pestilential atmosphere. 
Now the general situation is daily improving. The direction and the 
place of deposit of the alluvium is known, the portions of the shore which 
must be abandoned to the geological phenomena have been circum- 
scribed, and engineers are successfully resisting the filling up of the 
lagoons. Many marshes, moreover, have disappeared through the 
action of time, and man has dried several. The influence of the marshes 
has diminished in intensity since then ; and the laws of hygiene now bet- 
ter understood renders it possible to combat more effectually the palu- 
dal poisoning. Thus the reclaimed lands are beginning to be peopled 
again, but the population is exclusively agricultural. Itis useful, doubt- 
less, to bring these shores, which have been reclaimed from the water, 
under cultivation, with a view to rendering them healthy, and rescuing 
them from sterility. But why not open a yet larger field to the activity 
of the people, who never fail to improve every new source of making a 
fortune, and give them these aquatic fields, which, like the land, can re- 
ceive seed and yield a harvest? Does not the sea support multitudes 
of creatures which man may utilize as an important part of his food, 
provided he knows how to apply them to his use, not only by maintain- 
