254 MARITIME PISCICULTURE. 



which the newly transported oysters speedily fastened, 

 and began the work of reproduction immediately, owing 

 to their being on the point of spawning. Every embryo 

 was thus provided with a solid body on which to fasten. 

 But the difficulty of arresting the seminal fluid of the 

 procreant oysters had also to be overcome. Long lines 

 of hurdles, made of twigs of from four to five metres, were 

 ranged across the banks, and were kept floating above 

 the gravid oysters at the distance of from thirty to 

 forty centimetres, being kept in their places by being 

 suspended from their centres by a rope fastened to 

 ballast-stones. These were laid down by men, pro- 

 tected by a breathing apparatus, and instructed to depo- 

 sit around them a certain number of parturient oysters. 

 The ropes were found to rot quickly ; and M. Coste 

 now recommends the substitution of chains of galvanised 

 iron. Hardly six months had elapsed when the pro- 

 mises of science were astonishingly verified. The re- 

 sult surpassed its most sanguine hopes. The breeding 

 oysters, the shells which covered the bottom, the very 

 strand even, were ascertained to be covered with oys- 

 terlings ! " Never," exclaims M. Coste, " did Cancale 

 and Granville, at the time of their highest prosperity, 

 exhibit such a spectacle of productiveness. Every part 

 of the hurdles is loaded with clusters of oysters in such 

 profusion as to resemble the trees of our orchards, when 

 in spring their branches are covered with a profusion 

 of blossom. They should be termed actual petrifac- 

 tions. Seeing is necessary to believing such a wonder. 

 I have sent to your Majesty one of these apparatus for 

 collecting seed, in order that, with your own eyes, you 

 may judge of the riches of these hurdles. The young 

 oysters which cover them are already of the size of from 

 two to three centimetres. These, then, are fruits which 

 only require eighteen months in order to ripen into an 

 immense harvest. There are even twenty thousand in 

 a single hurdle, which occupies not more space in the 

 water than is occupied by a stalk of com in a field. 



