984 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [42] 
certain portions of our river banks, between low and high tide marks, 
might be utilized with success. This is an experiment which -many of 
the culturists of Morbihan are disposed to hazard. 
Upon this subject we have heard manifested a desire to see in the 
waters of a raising or fattening park the animal matter, upon which the 
oysters might feed. This idea should be set aside from the beginning, 
nothing being required but a firm bottom and tidal action. 
As we have said before, the oyster is a remarkable laboratory, where 
transformations are effected naturally; very little is necessary for the 
development of this mollusk, and the best is that which is most easily 
assimilated and which readily escapes our notice. 
It is remarkable that the same idea should have prevailed in all coun- 
tries, where the raising and fattening of oysters has been undertaken. 
M.de Broca says: “ A belief, which has gained some credit in England 
and America, is to the effect that oysters may be fattened by scattering 
a little flour (corn-meal being commonly employed) in the water which 
covers them. Some oyster-planters in New Jersey,” he says, “have 
tried this, but it is probable that the use of meal has little or no effect 
upon the oyster, whose stomach is so delicate as to appear incapable of 
digesting such nourishment.” 
Preparation of the bottom.—Setting aside the possibility of raising 
oysters artificially, the first thing to be sought for is a firm bottom, and 
if this cannot be found it must be made. M. Chaumel has accomplished 
this result in the gulf of Morbihan, and his example may be easily fol- 
lowed. It has been necessary to do the same thing in the river Bélon, 
which answers for fattening, as the river Trinité does for breeding. 
MM. Solminihac & Mauduy, who have built a remarkable establish- 
ment at Bélon, have had great difficulties to overcome. ‘The bottom 
of the river,” they say, ‘is not everywhere favorable to the existence of 
the oyster. In most places the borders of the channel, which are the 
only suitable localities, presented slopes of mud in which the oysters 
disappeared almost as soon as placed there. We had, therefore, to adapt 
the bottom to our purposes; we removed from eight inches to two feet 
of mud, macadamized the surface, and thus constructed a bed suitable 
for the oyster. Our efforts were crowned with success, for the oysters 
placed upon this artificial bottom in the early spring (as far as possible 
during the month of March), became completely transformed as to the 
nature of the shell, and increased very considerably in size, at the same 
time that the edible portion fattened greatly.” 
But this formation of bottom is not always possible in the streams 
and along the shores of Morbihan. In a little river which flows into 
the bay of Lorient, a culturist has been led into an ingenious system, 
to which future success would appear to be secured. M. Turlure, to 
whom a park had been conceded in the river Ter, had for some time 
contented himself with simply planting oysters along the channel, 
Where they improved greatly and soon became edible, Anxious to 
