210 SEA FISHERIES 



harbours; there would always be the same mention of 

 quays and basins ; but I must briefly describe the 

 arrangement of the port of Arcachon. It consists of 

 jetties at right angles to the shore, running out towards 

 the channel ; they are over 200 yards long. The trawlers 

 can enter at any state of the tide. The wharves are 

 provided with mechanical tractors on rails and electric 

 cranes. They are backed by repairing shops and ware- 

 houses; there is an ice factory with cold-storage 

 chambers, a fish market, a preserving factory, a packing- 

 case factory, and an auction. Between these buildings 

 and the sea is a yard some 2,000 square yards in area, 

 capable of storing 3,000 tons of coal ; and two powerful 

 electric cranes, capable of handling 600 tons a day, speedily 

 fill the bunkers of the trawlers. Each fisheries company 

 has its own wharf. That which I have just described 

 belongs to the New Steam Fisheries Company (Societe 

 nouvelle des pecheries d vapeur). From the report 

 communicated by M. Haentjens, director of the 

 company, to the Congress of Bordeaux, I quote the 

 following lines : " Directly a returning vessel reaches 

 the entry of the Arcachon channels the semaphore on 

 Cap Ferret advises the company by telegraph, and 

 transmits the signals which make known the result 

 of the voyage Y. O., for example, meaning 6,000 cod. 

 Immediately the fish market is cleared for action ; the 

 wicker hampers for unloading the fish and the crates 

 of coal are placed on trolleys, and the mechanical 

 tractor of the moving gangway is set in motion to 

 drag them to the pier. The boat is hardly hailed and 

 the ropes attached to the hawsers thrown, when the 

 unloading of the fish commences, while at the same 

 time the coal is shot into the bunkers. In less than 

 two hours the 6,000 cod, gurnards, gilt-heads, rays, and 



