[21] OYSTER-CULTURE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. 927 
ing them under his hand, but, also, by encouraging their growth and 
multiplication according to well-known laws? 
Reasons of the greatest importance, especially in view of their rela- 
tion to the public maintenance, impose upon us daily more and more the 
necessity of placing under a regular system of cultivation the domain of 
the fluvial and maritime waters. As regards the rivers and streams, 
this necessity was long ago made. known, and the art of cultivating fish 
is not unknown to us; whereas maritime fish culture, properly so called, 
has as yet received no attention. I desire, therefore, to call public 
attention to the subject of restocking the lagoons by fish culture, as well 
as to the necessity of restocking our rivers. 
Oyster culture in the Mediterranean does not seem to me to promise 
so brilliant a future as on the Atlantic coast, although some stations 
seem to offer all the conditions recognized as indispensable to success. 
Mussel culture, however, might be profitably carried on there. So many 
places along the coasts resemble Tarente and the cove of Aiguillon. 
The mussel furnishes nutritious food, and is, by reason of its cheapness, 
accessible to the majority of the people. Neither the south nor the 
west can produce enough to meet the demands of consumers. One- 
half of the mussels eaten at Paris are sent there from Belgium.* <An- 
other branch of fish culture, the breeding of small shell-fish ( praires, 
clovisses, &c.), would probably be profitable. The people of the south 
are very fond of these sea fruits, as the Italians call them, and would pay 
a good price for them. : 
I hasten to pass on to maritime fish culture, which seems to me to be 
the true industry suitable to these regions, and their natural conditions. 
Geographers have pointed out the striking resemblance existing between 
the delta of the Rhone and that of the Po; the alluvium tends in the same 
easterly direction, there are the same lagoons and the same marshes 
produced by the deposits of the river. The lagoons of Ferrare, Comac- 
chio, and Venice may be compared to Leucate, Thau, and those of 
Aigues-Mortes.. The inhabitants of the shore, however, have derived 
great benefit from these salt lakes, and in this no parallel can be drawn 
between the two. Whilst on the French side nothing but solitude and 
neglect} is seen, the Italians have not allowed to be lost the teachings 
im the art of cultivating the sea which were transmitted to them by the 
ancients. If, in the south, they practice oyster culture as in the last 
days of the Roman republic, along the Adriatic and in the Sardinias 
they have applied themselves to the breeding and preservation of sea 
fish. 
At Comacchio fish culture has from time immemorial furnished ma- 
“Maxime Du Camp, “ Paris, ses organes, ses fonctions et sa vie.” 
+ The average annual yield of the fisheries in Lake Thau amounts to 300,000 franes 
($60,000). This is an indication of a certain activity. (Lenthéric, Villes mortes du 
Golfe de Lyon. ) 
co 
