256 MAEITIME PISCICULTURE. 



shells are covered with a recently-formed population: so 

 that if, at the very time when this repeopling has been 

 accomplished, the fishing be commenced, the damage will 

 be almost as great as if it had begun during the period 

 of gestation. Along with the adult oysters we take the 

 young ones with which they are encrusted. The drag 

 thus makes havoc of fields in full germination^like a 

 rake drawn across a tree in full blossom. By delaying 

 the opening of the fishing season till March, the greater 

 part of the young oysters will be detached, and those 

 which still adhere can be removed, and either restored 

 to their position, as the law prescribes, or preserved in 

 rearing-ponds, as at Cancales. There is no force in the 

 objection that three months' fishing will not suffice to 

 supply the markets, seeing that in May oysters begin 

 to be milky, and their capture is then prohibited. The 

 oysters consumed during the greater part of the year 

 are not taken from the sea, but from the various 

 "pares" and "claires" (reservoirs), in which for several 

 months they are prepared for the market. A curious 

 account is given of the " claires " of Marennes, in which 

 the fishermen deposit oysters in order that they may 

 become green a result, it seems, which greatly im- 

 proves their flavour and tenderness. These " claires " 

 are, as it were, so many inundated fields established 

 here and there on both sides of the creek of La Soudre. 

 They differ from ordinary ponds and parks in not being, 

 like these, submerged at every tide, but only at spring- 

 tides ; a more frequent submergence would frustrate the 

 desired end. Irregular in their dimensions, they gene- 

 rally contain about three hundred square metres of 

 superficies. They are filled at spring-tides, and the 

 water is permitted to remain till the soil, thoroughly 

 impregnated with saline particles, resembles that of the 

 bottom of the sea. They are then emptied, and the soil 

 is dressed dried, that is, and levelled like a garden 

 walk or barn floor; all foreign substances, such as 

 plants dead or living, carefully removed, in order that 



