140 SEA FISHERIES 



salt-water lakes or lagoons they have been made. I refer 

 to artificial fishponds and reservoirs. The two terms are 

 often confounded. It would seem of advantage to apply 

 the term "fishpond" (vivier) to any artificial basin of 

 regular form which the fish enter in the shape of fry 

 and where they grow and are finally captured, while 

 the term " reservoir " should be applied to the temporary 

 quarters of adult fish. 



The history of the fishponds of Arcachon is extremely 

 instructive. The Captaux de Buch, in the Middle Ages, 

 owned the salt-marshes forming the shores of the 

 Arcachon basin. Men of battle and of conquest for the 

 most part, and also largely favoured by the Court, they 

 professed an utter disdain for a locality where the soil 

 was so poverty-stricken. But the weakness of the govern- 

 ment of Louis XV., the scandals of the Pact of Famine, 

 which, by "cornering" grain, devastated whole pro- 

 vinces, the overwhelming taxes of the Abb Terray, the 

 diminution of private revenues, and, finally, bankruptcy, 

 caused a general wave of poverty. The Lords of Buch 

 suffered with the rest. They then thought of turning 

 their marshes to some account, and on December 7, 

 1771, one of them, namely, Fran9ois de Durfort, Marquis 

 de Civrac, ceded "under the title of inconvertible pro- 

 perty, upon long feudal lease, to Messire Guesnon de 

 Bonneuil, the quantity of land required to make 145 

 livres" meaning a portion of land bringing in a livre 

 of rent " of salt-marshes (marais salants), to be taken in 

 the quarter called de Lauton, situate on the land and 

 in the lordship of Certes." I extract this sentence from 

 the excellent Memoire sur Arcachon by MM. Descas and 

 Muratet. By 1778 all the swamps of Certes were leased 

 as salt-marshes. However, the undertaking failed on 

 account of the indifferent profits and the suppression of 



