AQUICULTURE 



289 



planting their mussels from place to place at different seasons 

 as seems best for the growth and protection of the shellfish, 

 and of visiting their different kinds of bouchots at low tide 

 in curious little flat-bottomed boats known as " aeons," 

 which can be propelled over the soft mud (in which a man 

 would sink) by means of one foot encased in a large sea-boot 

 projecting over the side of the boat. I have myseK experi- 

 enced this curious method of navigation on mud during a 



Fig. 19. — Bouchot Mussel Cultube on the West Coast of France. 



visit to the bouchots, and I give here a reproduction of a 

 rough sketch made at the time (Fig. 19). 



In other countries where there are no locaHties suitable 

 for this bouchot system mussels occur in beds, or " scars," 

 which, like the oyster-beds, are in some cases exposed at low 

 tide, while in others they are wholly submerged, and the 

 mussels have to be obtained by dredges or other implements 



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