330 SEA FISHERIES 



A metric quintal of shell-fish about 121 Ibs. is worth 

 about us. 2jd. in Croisic market. The cost of carriage 

 to Paris is about 8s. ; to Grenoble, Vesoul, Nancy, ics. ; 

 to Avignon, IDS. 8d. ; to Marseilles, us. The trade in 

 mussels has penetrated only a very limited area of 

 the country. In Paris it painfully wages an unequal 

 war, and furnishes hardly a third of the total consump- 

 tion, two-thirds at least coming from abroad. In 1904 

 Paris bought 138 tons of mussels from Holland and 

 6,930 from Belgium, while the French mussel-beds 

 furnished only 2,041 tons. Thus yet another French 

 industry is languishing under the burden of heavy 

 freights. Considering their specific weight and their low 

 value, shell-fish ought to be granted a rebate of at 

 least 50 per cent, on the ordinary rates. But these rates, 

 which press so hardly on French products, are diminished 

 for foreign fish. The fish sent from England to Paris 

 pays 323. 2d. from Calais to Paris, while French fish 

 pays 373. 7d., or a difference of 55. 5d. in favour of 

 the former ; an injustice all the more shocking in that 

 the shipments from England which are thus protected 

 consist almost exclusively of those species which are 

 subjected to the most excessive rates in their own country. 

 The various Fishery Congresses have put these 

 grievances before the railway companies. Among other 

 requests, the Congress of Bordeaux expressed a wish 

 that goods should be accepted an hour before the 

 departure of trains ; that the clause demanding twelve 

 hours' notice in the case of the most rapid itinerary should 

 be limited to the first shipment by the same person to 

 the same place, &c. The Congress of Les Sables-d'Olonne 

 (1909) repeated the majority of these requests. They 

 also requested the companies to accept parcels of fish 

 for all trains composed of these classes of carriages, 



