OYSTER DREDGING. 137 



been dredged in the common ground ; brood from the oyster-grounds at Cancale and Trequiers 

 being- distributed in ten longitudinal lines on tiles, fragments of pottery, and valves of shells. 

 At the end of eight months the progress of the beds was tested, and the dredge in a few 

 minutes brought up 2,000 oysters fit for the table, while two fascines, drawn up at random, 

 contained nearly 20,000, from one to two inches in diameter/' The publicity given to these 

 facts excited great and practical interest, and in a short time the culture assumed gigantic 



DREDGING FOR OYSTERS. 



proportions. The Bay of Arcachon was transformed into a vast field of production, no less 

 than 1,200 capitalists, mostly very small ones, associated with an equal number of fishermen, 

 having up to 1870 planted no less than 988 acres of oysters. In this way the State 

 organised two model farms for experimental purposes, at the trifling original cost of 114; 

 it was estimated to be worth 8,000 in 1870, and had 5,000,000 oysters, large and small. 

 1,200 parks were then in active operations on the Isle of Re, and 2,000 more in course of 

 construction. 



In our own country the Whitstable Company has been most successful. " The layings 

 at Whitstable," Mr. Bertram tells us, " occupy about a mile and a half square, and the oyster- 

 beds have been so prosperous as to have obtained the name of the ( happy fishing grounds.' 

 138 



