134 American Fisheries Society 



reached navigation is accomplished by means of the pole 

 and when deeper water is encountered the paddle is used. 

 The seed mussels which are collected from the low crawls 

 are transported by this means to the false crawls or 

 next higher row of buchots where parcels of them are 

 attached to the wicker work by means of old netting. 

 The shellfish immediately begin to attach themselves to 

 the wooden structures by their byssal threads, so that by 

 the time the netting has rotted or washed away, they are 

 firmly united to the crawls. 



The rate of growth in this position is very rapid and 

 in a few months they become so crowded as to almost 

 hide the frames. It then becomes necessary to trans- 

 plant them again, this time to the next series of crawls 

 lying nearer the shore. The mussels are attached by 

 the same method previously employed but are not fast- 

 ened so securely since they are able at this stage to 

 attach themselves to the buchots much more quickly. 

 After one year's treatment on the crawls the mussels 

 reach a length of 1% to 2 inches, which is marketable 

 size. 



The net returns from an investment in a series of 

 buchots is approximately 11 1/2%. To quote from Coste, 

 the production and value of cultivated mussels in the Bay 

 of Aiguillon is as follows : 



A bouchot well stocked furnishes generally, according to the length 

 of its wings, from 400 to 500 loads of mussels; that is to say, about 

 one load per meter. The load is 150 kilograms, and sells for 5 francs. 

 One bouchot, therefore, produces a crop weighing from 60,000 to 75,000 

 kilograms, and valued at 3,000 to 2,500 francs; from which it follows 

 that the crop from all of the bouchots united would weigh about 

 30,000,000 to 37,000,000 kilograms, which, at the figures already given, 

 would be worth about 1,000,000 to 1,200,000 francs. These figures and 

 the abundant crops from which they result, give an idea of the food 

 supplies and of the great benefits that may be derived from a similar 

 industry, if, instead of being confined to only one portion of the Bay 

 of Aiguillon it should be extended to the whole of it and carry it from 

 the locality where it originated to all the coasts and salt water lakes 

 where it could be successfully carried on. In the meantime the pros- 

 perity which it secured to the three communes of which it has become 

 the patrimony will remain as an end worthy of effort; for, thanks 

 to the precious invention of Walton, wealth has succeeded poverty, 

 and since the industry has been developed here no healthy man is poor. 

 Those whose infirmities condemn them to idleness are cared for in a 

 most generous and delicate manner by the others. 



