58 SEA FISHERIES 



the Bay of Banyuls the shore grows flatter ; there are 

 the sands and low beaches of Roussillon and Languedoc, 

 concealing lagoons and salt-water lakes. Then comes 

 Cap Couronne. The coast turns inward to the range 

 of the Maures and the Esteiul and the outer ramparts 

 of the Alps. The submarine topography of the Mediter- 

 ranean may be indicated in a few words. Wherever the 

 coast is high and rocky the continental shelf is narrow ; 

 wherever the coast is low and sandy the shelf is wide. 

 Thus the loo-fathom line runs from the Cap de Creus 

 and the bay of Marseilles almost in a straight line, while 

 in Provence it hardly leaves the coast. 



Owing to the absence of appreciable tides the in-shore 

 regions are always submerged. Below the sands are 

 stretches of mud ; beyond the rocks is the " pavement," 

 the sea-grasses or meadows, and the coralligenous deeps. 

 The " pavement " is an anfractuous belt, formed of cal- 

 careous algae ; and the coralligenous deeps, the broundo 

 of the fishermen, consist of masses of shells and small 

 gravels. The Mediterranean pools and lagoons are of 

 two types : there are the closed bays, the great calanques 

 (coves), in direct and constant communication with the 

 sea, and the lagoons, divided from the sea by a barrier 

 and connected with it by narrow channels. The pool 

 of Berre, like the pool of Morbihan in the Atlantic, 

 belongs to the former type ; the pool of Thau to the 

 second. The former, covering an area of some 37,000 

 acres, is from i to 6 fathoms in depth ; in the course 

 of a century the alluvial deposits of the tributary streams 

 have raised the floor by nearly 3 feet. The latter is of 

 about one-half the area of the former, and its depth is 

 about a fathom less in the deepest parts. The floor is of 

 sand and mud, and the water is brackish. 



The in-shore region offers three principal aspects. 



