250 MARITMIE PISCICULTURE. 



nevertheless be so profitable to retain and preserve, 

 only thinks of perfecting the instruments which it uses 

 in tearing from the surface of the beds where they are 

 deposited the oysters which are brought to our markets. 

 Its talent is only applied in rendering the means of 

 destruction more effective ; for these beds are precisely 

 those where grow those young ones which, at their 

 birth, have not left the natal spot. Now, as with equal 

 power of destruction it attacks both young and old, it 

 follows that any bed whatever must disappear, simply 

 in consequence of being fished ; whereas harvests in- 

 comparably more abundant may be taken from it with- 

 out ever touching the source of production. To attain 

 this important result, it is only necessary to modify the 

 processes so successfully followed at Fusaro. Timber- 

 work, loaded with stones at the base, might be made of 

 many pieces, covered with stakes firmly attached, and 

 armed with iron cramps, &c. Then, at the spawning 

 season, these apparatus could be let down into the sea, 

 either upon or around the oyster-beds ; they might be 

 left there till the reproductive seed had covered the 

 different pieces ; and cables, indicated on the surface 

 by a buoy, might permit them to be drawn up when it 

 was judged convenient." 



All this reads very plausibly, some may think ; but 

 will oysters stick to stakes, as, according to theory, 

 they ought? Will old Father Neptune, indignant at 

 the sea being made an artificial fish-pond, not discomfit 

 M. Coste, and make wild work alike with his theories 

 and his apparatus ? Your lazy people, who constantly 

 deny that a thing can be done till it is done before those 

 dull eyes of theirs, which cannot see through the mist 

 of ancient prejudices, laughed at the procreative pro- 

 cesses of the philosopher, and, like the Tay fishermen 

 as to the artificial rearing of salmon, were of opinion 

 that "the thing culdna be just for the auld way's 

 best." 



It is said that most men of forty are hardly capable 



