38 APPENDIX. 



certain success, and which will give an incalculable supply to 

 public nourishment : this remedy consists in undertaking, at 

 the expense of the State, under the care of the Marine 

 Administration, and by means of its vessels, the sowing 

 (with oysters) of the shores of France, so as to restock its 

 ruined beds, to revive those which are extinguished, to 

 extend those which prosper, to create new ones wherever the 

 nature of the bottom will permit their establishment ; and 

 when, through this generous commencement, the product- 

 ive beds shall have sufficiently developed themselves in all 

 places, they might then be submitted to a salutary system of 

 regulated gatherings, allowing some to remain quiet while 

 others are worked, an arrangement which for a century has 

 preserved the beds of Cancale and Granville from destruc- 

 tion/' Mons. Coste then proposes that oysters should be 

 dredged on common ground, and laid down in the bay of 

 St. Brieux, the bottom being previously cleared ; and goes on 

 to say, " that by aid of these very simple means, from the bay 

 of St. Brieux alone, at an insignificant expense, may be made 

 a considerable revenue, provided all the necessary means are 

 taken for the success of the enterprise." 



" Among the precautions I place in the first rank that of 

 not allowing the productive shell-fish to remain out of the 

 water longer than the time necessary for their transport 

 from the place of their fishing to that of their destination, 

 or their provisional resting-place. It is through having 

 neglected to conform to this rule, that previous attempts 

 have failed ; but every time it has been observed, the experi- 

 ment has succeeded, as is proved by the trials of Mons. 

 De Bon in the Ranee/' 



Mons. Coste proposes to lay down hurdles twisted with 

 branches with their bark on for the spat to attach itself 

 to, so as to prevent its being drifted away by the currents ; 



