WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 167 



The late Mr. Thomas Ashworth, the most practical, perse- 

 vering, and successful of pisciculturists, commenting on the above 

 Report, says " If we estimate the annual profit of 50 acres of 

 the best land at 2 an acre, that is^ioo, and compare this with 

 a single night's fishing of five vessels, producing 17 tons of fish, 

 at 7 a ton, say ; 119, we may form some idea of the wonderful 

 powers of production of a ' fish-farm ' at the bottom of the sea, 

 which, without any expensive tillage, produces more food in one 

 night than a similar area of the best cultivated land in an entire 

 year /" 



That the Marine Observatory at Concarneau was established 

 by the Academy of Sciences, not for breeding sea-fish artificially, 

 but for the purpose of studying their habits, with a view to their 

 better culture and propagation in a state of nature, has been 

 explained in a previous chapter ; and as the institution from, its 

 commencement has been entrusted to the management of 

 M. Coste, a man eminently qualified for the post, great results 

 have already been achieved, and greater may yet be anticipated. 



On our arrival at the little seaport, the news rapidly spread 

 from the hostelry to the gendarmerie, and thence, with official 

 weight, to the ears of Mr. Coste, that a party of savants had 

 arrived at Concarneau for the express purpose of visiting the 

 Observatory and reporting thereon ; so, while M. de St. Prix was 

 engaged in writing a note to the Director, soliciting his permission 

 to view the establishment, that energetic officer had anticipated 

 the formality and reached the hotel : nor was the warmth and 

 courtesy of his welcome at all chilled when he discovered as he 

 very quickly did that we were only a party of wolf-hunters, eager 

 to improve our acquaintance with the living wonders of the deep 

 mere amateurs in the science of natural history, and no savants 

 at all. 



"Come along, gentlemen," he said in the heartiest manner, 

 proposing to lead the way directly towards the Institution ; " and 



